We've Been Searching the Sky for Answers
by KissPookie28
Summary: Everything seems to be going right for Lorelai. She's engaged to a wonderful man, her daughter's about to be a senior at Yale, and for once she seems to be on fairly good terms with her parents. Of course it couldn't last.
1. Pregnant?

**So I'm working on a kind of epilogue for my other Gilmore Girls story and this idea popped into my head. This chapter is mostly, ok all, fluff, but I promise the drama will happen. Hopefully this story will be better received than my previous. I do assure you that there are no unusual couples. FYI in my world there is no April. So enough of the rambling, enjoy!**

The sun beat down on the town. Folks moved around the square talking and laughing with one another. The man in the candy shop waved through the big picture window to the man in the diner next door. Diner man grimaced and turned his back to the window before taking someone's order. Outside, a woman with long brown hair passed a group of gossiping women. For a moment she stopped and listened before moving into the diner.

The door slammed behind Lorelai. Luke smiled up at her. Smoothly, she glided from the door to the counter.

"Hello fiancée," Lorelai smiled. Luke leaned across the counter and kissed her. "So I have a question."

"Yes I'm opposed to wearing a pink tux to the wedding." Luke pressed a few buttons on the cash register.

"That wasn't my question, but good to know. Actually my question was, if I promise to give you some later, will you give me free coffee this morning?"

"Aw jeez." Luke looked around as if to check and see if someone heard her.

"What? We're engaged we're allowed to talk about doing dirty things together. But I left my wallet at home this morning and I think that since we're sleeping together and I do have a rock on my finger..." The diamond of her ring shone as she wiggled her ring finger. "…that it obligates you to give me free coffee." Before her speech was over Luke had already set a cup in front of her. "That's why I'm marrying you." She smiled at him before taking a sip.

"And here I thought it was because you loved me."

"Nope, it's the fact that you can keep me constantly supplied with coffee."

"Good to know. Now I have to go take other people's orders, do you want anything to eat?"

"Give me a bagel and three doughnuts, two jelly one cream filled, and eggs with a side of bacon and a couple pancakes, extra syrup and whipped cream."

"Are you taking breakfast to the whole inn staff?" Luke raised an eyebrow.

"No," Lorelai gave him a look as if he was crazy. "This is all for me baby."

"I'm sorry I assumed that since you were ordering enough breakfast for the entire town you might be sharing it with someone. I'll get that to you." Luke walked away from her and went to take another table's orders. Lorelai watched him for a bit with a smile on her face. She couldn't believe how lucky she was. Here she was, the girl who got pregnant at sixteen. The girl who no one thought could make it on her own. But make it she had. Shortly after leaving her parents stuffy house at sixteen, Lorelai had gotten a job and taken care of her daughter. Then she moved to this town where everyone treated her like family. Well not like her family, but like a loving family. As her daughter had grown into nearly the perfect woman, Lorelai had gained valuable skills in running an inn. A few years ago Lorelai had opened her own inn. Now her inn was one of the most successful ones around and Lorelai had a wonderful fiancée who had practically been a father to her daughter. Lorelai's life was finally on track. She was pulled from her thoughts by a ringing. Lorelai turned back to the counter and sipped her coffee.

"Are you going to get that?" Luke asked her a bit angrily as he passed carrying empty plates. Lorelai realized that it was her phone ringing and dug into her purse.

"Hello?" she answered. Luke had dropped off the plates and was now pointing furiously at the 'No Cell Phones' sign.

"Hey mom!" It was Lorelai's one and only daughter, Rory.

"Hold on Rory, Luke's giving me the angry face as he points to the sign."

"The no cell phone sign?" Rory asked.

"That's the one."

"Well you should be allowed to talk on your phone all you want, you're the fiancée. Does he know that?"

"I'll remind him." Lorelai put her hand over the mouthpiece and turned to Luke. "Luke, I'm your fiancée now. That means I should get special privileges."

"Your phone disturbs other customers. Now take it outside." Lorelai smiled at him and the planted one on his mouth. She then settled back in her seat and was about to resume talking. "Don't make me take that coffee from you." Lorelai's eyes widened and her expression changed to one of the scandalized.

"I can't believe you would threaten the innocent like that!" Lorelai told him.

"Oh look a ninja," Rory said over the phone.

"What?" Lorelai turned her attention back to her daughter.

"Just reminding you that I'm still here."

"Ok, I'll talk to you in two shakes." Lorelai put her hand over the mouthpiece again and stood up. "I'll take this outside this time but don't think this over. Oh no. The war has just begun!" Lorelai had made her way to the door of the diner, shouting at Luke the whole time. Other customers gave her odd stares. Lorelai walked out the door but she returned quickly to grab her coffee. Once she had it in her hand, she left the diner again but not nearly as dramatically. "So what's up?" she asked of her daughter.

"Well, I've got some news." Oh no. Lorelai inhaled deeply, she liked kids just fine but she didn't think she was really ready to be a grandmother. After all she was still in her thirties. And she was just beginning to like Logan. The two of them had never really gotten along famously.

"You're pregnant," Lorelai said aloud to her daughter.

"God no, mom. I can't believe you would automatically assume that if I had some news to tell you it must mean that I'm pregnant."

"Sorry. I just took a walk down memory lane."

"Not exactly the yellow brick road is it?" Rory said sympathetically.

"So what's your not pregnant news?"

"Logan and I broke up."

"That little bastard! I'll kill him." Lorelai sipped her coffee gruffly.

"Mom, it's ok. I dumped him. We just aren't in the same places in our lives. We were growing apart. To tell you the truth we've been over for a while, it's just that neither of us really wanted to make it official."

"Well, honey are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm the right side of the number line." Lorelai thought for a moment, but didn't understand. Understanding her mother's silence, Rory clarified. "It means I'm positive mom."

"You've been at college far too long. It's turned my lovely pop culturally knowledged daughter into some dork."

"Is knowledged a word?"

"Not the point Rory." Lorelai took a sip from her coffee, giving Luke a pointed look. "The point is, when are you coming home?"

"Had my last final today. I've got to finish packing and then Paris and I are going to do a little last hurrah kind of thing before she goes back to her mother's new face. And then I get the apartment all to myself tonight and I'm thinking of hunkering down with a good book."

"That's my little socially challenged girl!"

"Mom there's not much going on around here…"

"Except the ton of parties I am sure the frat boys are having right outside your door this instant." Rory smiled.

"Mom, when have I ever been the party girl?"

"You haven't." Lorelai pouted a little bit. "But that's why I think you should be. I feel like I got off far too easy with you. And what if Luke and I have a kid someday. I won't know how to handle it if it turns out to be one of those rebel types with the leather jackets and bad ass comebacks."

"Are _you_ pregnant?!" Perhaps that's why pregnancy was on Lorelai's mind when Rory said she had news.

"No. No apples yet. Luke and I are very careful." Lorelai looked into the diner again and imagined for a moment what Luke would be like as a dad.

"You and Luke are thinking of having kids?" Rory pried some more as she was a bit thrown off by the kid comment. While she was sure her mother would still be a cool mom to some other little kid, Rory couldn't imagine having to share Lorelai with anyone.

"Well we haven't really decided. I mean I think he wants to…I wouldn't be totally opposed. The thing is though I wouldn't know how to deal with it."

"Let Luke deal with it."

"Luke?"

"Yeah, he dealt with Jess."

"Good point. As soon as our hypothetical child buys a leather jacket he or she is all Luke's. Thanks Rory!"

"Glad I could help with that." Rory picked up a few books with her free hand and put them in an empty box.

"Now I'm going to give you some good advice…"

"Mom I saw _Mom at Sixteen, _I know the consequences of having sex."

"I can't believe you would turn to Danielle Panabaker and the Lifetime channel for advice on what to do when you get pregnant when you have the Mister Miyagi of inconvenient pregnancies on speed dial." Rory laughed. "But that wasn't my advice. My advice is to go out and party it up. You only have one more year of college left. And by the time you're done with that year you're going to be so burnt out you won't have the energy to party. So go find a crazy party and just dance until the wee hours of the morning."

"I'm not making any promises." Lorelai rolled her eyes even though Rory couldn't see.

"I know."

"I watch the news you know mom. I've seen the kinds of things that happen to girls at these parties."

"You've got a level head, nothing's going to happen to you. Bye now."

"But when I'm drunk there's no telling how level headed I'll be!" Rory yelled to her mother before Lorelai had a chance to shut the phone.

"I expect a drunken phone call from you later tonight and a hungover you tomorrow when you arrive. Bye sweets, I love you. Turn off Lifetime."

"But mom…" but this time Lorelai beat Rory to it and shut her phone before Rory could say anything more. Rory sighed and set her phone down. She finished packing her box and then taped it shut. She looked at her phone and thought back to her mother's words. Before she could change her mind, Rory grabbed a coat and her phone and left the apartment.


	2. The Aftermath

A ring sounded somewhere near Rory's head. Due to the vast amounts of alcohol she had consumed the night before, by her mother's orders, the ringing was intensified. Now it almost sounded like the ringing was in her head. Silently, Rory cursed whoever it was that was calling her before she rolled over and picked up her phone.

"Hello?" she mumbled grumpily.

"Is this Miss Gilmore?" Rory sat up in bed, this sounded official.

"Yes."

"Ah hello, this is Headmaster Charleston from Chilton." Rory was a bit surprised that the headmaster from her high school would be calling her.

"Hello Headmaster, is there something I can do for you?" The last time the headmaster had called Rory, it had been to ask if she could show a student around campus. But that had ended in disaster when the girl was arrested for underage drinking. Rory doubted she would be asked to show another student around.

"Well as you know the juniors at our school will be sifting through colleges this summer to determine which to apply to."

"Right." Rory remembered that process well.

"And I thought it might be helpful for them to hear from students who have already moved on from Chilton. So I was just calling to ask if you would be willing to come in and talk."

"I would love to."

"Excellent. I know it's last minute but if you could be here by one that would be great."

"One," Rory knew her mom would not be pleased that their time together would be interrupted, but she had to do this, to redeem herself in the eyes of Chilton. "Yeah, I'll be there."

"Excellent, I'll see you then Miss Gilmore."

"Goodbye Headmaster." Rory set her phone down on the table and quickly jumped out of bed. She took the quickest shower she had taken in her life and threw on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt. She could change later for the Chilton thing, but for now her only focus was getting to her mom. Boxes were hastily thrown into her trunk and then she was off.

"Mom!" Rory called into the house as she dropped a box in the foyer. There was no reply from within. "Mom?" Rory was confused, she thought for sure that her mom would be running to the door to greet her. Rory walked into the kitchen but aside from empty boxes of Rice Krispies, it was empty. A bit worried, Rory walked into the living room. Magazines and DVDs were strewn across the room, but no Lorelai. And then Rory heard the faint strains of the Bangles coming from upstairs. Relieved, Rory walked upstairs to her mother's bedroom. The Bangles were blaring from a CD player as Lorelai bobbed her head to the music. Rory shut it off.

"Oh my gosh!" Lorelai spun around as her music quit and was frightened that there was someone else in her room.

"Oh my gosh!" Rory echoed as she pointed to the dress that hung in front of Lorelai.

"Hey kid." Lorelai walked over and hugged Rory. Rory's eyes never left the dress.

"What…that…" Rory could only stammer in shock.

"Well Rory, first of all I want you to remember that when you were little Sookie used to bake you whatever you wanted. Cookies, cakes, muffins, marzipan."

"Can you bake marzipan?" Lorelai shrugged. "And when did I ever ask for marzipan?"

"That's not the point Rory, the point is Sookie means well you know and she's always put you before herself…"

"What's this about mom?"

"Well this is your bridesmaid dress." Lorelai walked over with Rory to the dress hanging on the back of the door. It was a violent shade of purple and the sleeves were humungous. The skirt poofed out like a princess gown and there was a bow the size of Rory's head in the front. Rory touched the fabric.

"Mom, look I took your advice and I went out and partied last night…"

"I know, I got your message and I'm positive that we're not related to Angelina Jolie no matter how much the drunken frat boy insisted you looked like Angie."

"I'll let him know, but the point is that I partied pretty hard, so I'm not feeling to great today and I don't really need someone pulling sick jokes like this on me."

"Oh it's not a joke." Lorelai took the dress off the door and put the hanger behind Rory's head so that the dress fell in front of her. "You know if anyone could pull it off it would be you." Rory turned to the mirror beside her.

"No." Swiftly, Rory pulled the dress off of her. "Mom, when you picked out these dresses was it before or after your lobotomy?" With a sigh, Lorelai took the dress from Rory's hands and hung it back on the door.

"I didn't pick it out. Since I picked out our bridesmaid dresses for Sookie's wedding she thought she should be able to pick out the bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. And these are what she picked out." Rory looked back at the dress for a moment before turning to her mother.

"Ok Sookie has spent entirely too much time near the stove. All the fumes must have made her light headed or something."

"Oh come on remember all the stuff she baked for you and all the things she's done for you."

"She can bake me ten cakes for the rest of my lifetime, but I still think she was high when she picked out these dresses. There's no way in hell I'm wearing that."

"Hey, if you're here who's ruling over Narnia?"

"I'm just saying, that dress is ugly." Lorelai looked down.

"I know, I just don't know how to tell Sookie that."

"How about, hey Sookie I appreciate the gesture but no."

"I can't do that to her. You didn't see her face when she brought them to me. So I've been up here trying to figure out a way that I could fix them. You know make them better, a bit more attractive."

"Have you come up with anything?"

"Not yet, but maybe as a collaborative effort we can." Lorelai looked excited and Rory nodded reluctantly. The two of them turned to the purple disaster and stared for a bit.

"I know a way to make them better," Rory stated. Lorelai turned to her expectantly. "Burn them."

"I'll get the lighter," Lorelai resigned.

"I'm telling you just ask Sookie where she bought them, return them and then go with her the next time she goes shopping." Rory sat down on the bed and picked up magazine.

"Ok let's get off the topic of these dresses, it depresses me." Lorelai joined Rory on the bed. "So what do you want to do today?" Sighing, Rory set down the magazine.

"Unfortunately, I've got some bad news about today."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Headmaster Charleston called me this morning and asked me to go speak at the school today at one."

"Did you tell him you were hungover?"

"No, that didn't really come up in our conversation."

"So what can we cram in in like two hours?" Lorelai asked as she checked her clock.

"I was hoping that we could go get giant vats of Luke's coffee maybe it'll help with the hangover."

"Of course we can." Lorelai touched Rory's hand so proud that her daughter was hungover. She bounced up off the bed and walked to the door of her bedroom. "Grab your purse let's go."

"Hold on I need an outfit to change into for the speech." Lorelai smiled mischieviously at Rory and then walked to her closet. She proceeded to make gestures at the purple dress. "I was thinking something a bit less…poofy. Come on Vanna White." Lorelai faked a pout and then followed Rory downstairs to pick out clothes.

"Luke, coffee now!" Lorelai called as she entered the diner. She looked around and every table was full, including the counter. "You would think that being the fiancée of the proprietor would guarantee me a table," she said to Rory.

"Proprietor?" Rory raised her eyebrow at her mother's word choice.

"I heard it on TV and I've been dying to use it." Rory nodded as the two of them looked

around the room and saw a man sitting by himself in the corner. They walked over to him.

"Yup that's him," Rory announced to her mother loudly. Lorelai gave her a confused look and Rory shrugged, mouthing 'improvise'.

"Can I help you?" the man asked of the two approaching women.

"Well we were sent her by a woman," Lorelai tried. This time it was Rory who gave the confused look.

"Who?" the man sipped his coffee slowly. By now, they had attracted Luke's attention but he couldn't come over and stop them because he was taking someone's order. He watched the three of them.

"She was tall," Rory supplied.

"And blonde," Lorelai added.

"Nancy?" the man asked.

"Yes," Rory and Lorelai said in unison.

"Well what did she want?" The man was not going to let them off easily. By now Luke had finished taking the table's order and was walking over to his fiancée and future step daughter.

"She wanted me to tell you the baby is yours," Rory finished.

"Oh god." The man stood quickly, threw some money on the table and ran from the diner.

"And the student becomes the master," Lorelai said to Rory with a smile. Luke had arrived now. "Oh Luke, could you clean off this table for us?"

"Where did that man go?" Luke looked suspicious.

"Who?" Lorelai tried to look innocent as Rory stifled a giggle.

"The man who was sitting here."

"I don't know, I didn't know the man." Luke shook his head as if he didn't believe her, but cleaned off the table anyway. "Thanks babe, you've got something coming to you later." Lorelai gave a wink.

"Did you just have a stroke on one side of your face?" Luke asked her as he picked up plates.

"No, it was a wink. It was supposed to be sexy," Lorelai said a bit hurt.

"Well it wasn't," Luke said as he walked off.

"He's right, you're a very awkward winker," Rory added unhelpfully.

"Well so are you. In fact everyone is except for like supermodels or something." Lorelai opened her menu.

"How many supermodels do you know?" Rory wasn't letting it go.

"None, but it's like a requirement. Do you want pancakes?"

"So when you apply want to be a supermodel first you have to prove that you can wink sexily?" Lorelai put down her menu a bit grumpily.

"Do people really apply to be a supermodel?"

"I thought I was the one with the hangover, but you have closer to the right attitude."

Lorelai looked at her wrist, where there was no watch. "Oh lookey there, only an hour before you need to be at Chilton, better order those pancakes quickly." Rory laughed at her mother as she waved to Luke to come over and take their order.


	3. Going Back

Rory pulled her car into a parking spot in front of the school. As she got out of the car, she looked up at the vast carvings on the outside of the building, remembering when she had gone to the school and it had seemed so immense. Heaving a sigh, Rory stepped away from her car and walked into the building. Students milled around in the hallways and a few of them gave Rory looks as she passed by for she wasn't in a uniform. Somehow, Rory's feet still knew where to take her and before she knew it she was standing outside the headmaster's office. But before she could knock the door swung open.

"Ah, Miss Gilmore, it's good to see you again."

"Hello Headmaster." Rory extended her hand to the portly man who took it and shook it.

"Follow me please." Rory nodded and followed the man out of the office and down the hallway. "So how is Yale treating you?" Headmaster tried to make small talk.

"Very well thank you for asking." The headmaster nodded.

"Here we are." He opened the door for her and she walked in. "Miss Gilmore, this is Mrs. Quin, she teaches the class you will be speaking to. Mrs. Quin, this is Miss Gilmore, she will be speaking today."

"Pleased to meet you." Rory smiled at Mrs. Quin.

"Our other speaker just went to the bathroom, he should be back any moment," Mrs. Quin explained.

"I believe you went to school with our other speaker. He's here to speak about an, ah…" Headmaster Charleston seemed to be searching for a word. "Alternative track. Well, I'll leave you to it then. It was good seeing you again Miss Gilmore." The headmaster gave a wave before exiting the room.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Quin," Rory turned to the woman beside her. Her curiosity had been sparked by the headmaster's comment about an 'alternative track'. "Do you know who the other speaker is?" Mrs. Quin opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off as Rory got her answer.

"Mary!" a familiar voice spoke behind Rory. Immediately, Rory turned.

"Tristin!" Rory was shocked to see her former classmate standing in the doorway. For a moment Rory panned his body, taking in his outfit a simple pair of jeans and a tee shirt with a blazer over it. Rory felt awkward for a moment as she realized she was over dressed. It also didn't help that her business attire further proved that she was in fact a 'Mary'. Rory smiled at Tristin as he walked towards her.

"I never thought I'd see you again. How you been?" Rory tried to respond but stopped when Tristin wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"Oh," Rory was taken aback. She and Tristin had had a past together, but they were never really friends. He had a little crush on her, but she had stifled it when she chose Dean. Rory put her arms around Tristin to reciprocate the hug before pulling back. "I've been great! You?" Rory looked at his face, and saw that military school had been good to him. A face that had once been a cute boy next door face was now a heart pounding gorgeous face. Rory wished once again that she had worn an outfit that showed a bit more skin.

"A great as I could be going to military school."

"Well you should be out of that by now."

"Yeah I'm actually…"

"Ok class, sit down." Mrs. Quin clapped her hands and Rory and Tristin turned to her. Sharply, Mrs. Quin turned to the two of them with a pointed look. As they tried to suppress their giggles, the two of them found seats.

"Well that was…interesting." Rory commented as she and Tristin walked out of the building towards their cars.

"Were we ever that awkward? I swear half of those boys looked like they were going to pass out when you looked at them."

"You had them swooning yourself mister. 'Um…I was wondering where you got that jacket because it's so hot'." Rory imitated one girl. Tristin laughed. They had arrived at Rory's car and she began to fiddle with her keys. "Well, it was good seeing you again."

"You know, we never really got to talk. Do you want to maybe grab a cup of coffee?" Rory looked up at him. Her mother would be furious, they did have plans. Well actually the Gilmore Girls didn't plan, but they did have an agreement to meet up and do something. Rory looked into Tristin's eyes and immediately found her answer.

"Absolutely."

"Great, tell you what how about you follow me in your car." Rory nodded and then got into her car. As Tristin walked to his car, Rory pulled down her mirror and added a fresh coat of lip gloss.

"I can't believe that with my coffee addiction, I never knew this place was here," Rory said in awe as the two of them walked into the coffee shop.

"I can't believe that you're addicted to coffee."

"Why can't you believe that?" The two had gotten in line and Rory was looking up at the menu.

"It's just not very Mary like of you." Rory turned and Tristin flashed her a dazzling smile.

"Okay you need to cool it with the nickname. I'll have you know that I've done a lot of non Mary like things in my life."

"Do tell."

"Well…" But they had gotten up to the counter.

"I'll have a double, black," Tristin ordered. "And you non Mary?"

"Oh you don't have…"

"Yes I do, what do you want?"

"Vanilla cappuccino, extra foam." Tristin handed the man behind the counter the money for the coffee and then they went to pick their cups up. "That was very nice of you."

"I'm a nice guy. Thanks man." Tristin nodded to the man who handed them their coffees. "I may not have been back in high school, but I changed."

"So I noticed." Rory smiled as she took a sip of her coffee. Tristin pulled out her chair for her and Rory couldn't control it any longer, she laughed out loud. Tristin smiled as he pushed in her chair and then went to sit on his side of the table.

"So tell me about your non Mary escapades." Tristin leaned back in his seat.

"Well I guess it all started with Jess. He was the bad boy that my mom didn't really want me to date. He's also the reason I missed my mom's graduation. Then I went on to sleep with my ex boyfriend, Dean."

"Ah yes, the infamous Dean. Is he still just as freakishly tall?"

Rory nodded. "Well he was my ex at the time and also happened to be married." Tristin choked on his coffee.

"You slept with a married man?" Tristin seemed genuinely surprised.

"Yup."

"I guess I'm not the only one that's changed since high school."

"Oh that's actually not the worst of it. Then my next serious boyfriend and I stole a boat, got arrested, I had to do community service. I dropped out of Yale and moved out of my mom's house. It was bad."

"I'm impressed." Rory smiled and took a victory sip of her coffee.

"So what did you do after you left Chilton?"

"Nothing near as exciting as that. Let's see I got sent to military school, which I think broke my spirit. Adults could actually stand to be in the same room as me for extended periods of time after military school. And then I went on to Harvard. I graduated early, this year actually. Partly because I was tired of school and partially because there was really no need to go back another year." He sipped is coffee.

"I'm sorry, no need? I dropped out of college, remember and I went back because I realized there was a need."

"Ah but you see your daddy isn't loaded."

"So?"

"So he didn't buy you an office building so that you could open your very own law firm."

"You own a law firm?!" Rory was shocked. This was certainly not the Tristin she had gone to school with.

"Not only do I own it, but I run it as well. Which is especially good because that means I can choose the company dress code. They have to wear proper business attire when meeting with clients but other than that, I'm thinking of requiring the girls to wear skirts no longer than midthigh." As Rory rolled her eyes she realized that some things never change.

"You were impressed with me and you've done all of that? I suddenly feel so, under accomplished."

"No you see Rory, I'm impressed with you because you actually live." Tristin set his coffee on the table. "Every day I go into the office and do paperwork or make business calls. I have a routine that's rarely broken. I can't remember the last time I had a date. Or the last time I got totally trashed."

"Last night," Rory said indicating herself.

"See what I mean? You're doing things that normal people our age do. I wish I had that, but you know there's no going back now." Unsure of if she should pity Tristin or smack him for taking his charmed life for granted, Rory avoided eye contact. "Hey, I didn't want to bum you out." Tristin reached his hand out to her.

"No I'm not bummed just a bit confused. How about we change the topic."

"So how's your love life nowadays?"

"Just broke up with my serious boyfriend."

"Why?"

Rory was a bit peeved that he felt he should be privy to her private life, but then she figured that if his love life was really as pitiful as he said the least she could do is let him live vicariously through her.

"We just grew apart is all." Tristin nodded his approval and then Rory's phone rang. "It's my mom," Rory informed him as she pulled the phone from her bag and looked at the caller id. "Sorry." She flipped open her phone. "Hey mom." Her mother's voice angrily yelled back.

"Hey mom? That's all I get? We agreed to do something after your Chilton thing. Are they really keeping you up there that long? How many questions do these damn kids have? Or are they holding you hostage? Should I call the cops?"

"Mom, I'm fine. I just ran into…" But Rory wasn't really sure if she should tell her mom about Tristin, they hadn't gotten along well the first time he was around. "I just ran into someone and so now we're out to coffee. So I'm going to go, don't want to be rude. Love you mom." Rory slammed her phone closed and immediately it began to ring. With the push of a button, Rory's ringer was silenced.

"You and your mom had plans?" Tristin surmised.

"Yeah, but…"

"No buts, I know how important you guys are to each other. And I'm sure she's a lot more fun than I am. Get out of here." Tristin reached into his pocket as Rory talked to him guiltily.

"Are you sure because it's ok I can see her any time." Tristin pulled out a pen and grabbed a napkin from the table.

"And we can see each other any time as well. Here." Confused, Rory looked down at the napkin he had handed to her. In his big sloppy handwriting he had written is number down. She smiled and slipped the napkin into her purse.

"It was good seeing you again Tristin." Awkwardly, she bent down and gave him a hug.

"Bye Miss Hilton." Rory pulled back and gave him a look. "Well Mary doesn't fit anymore but I think Paris Hilton does." Rory grimaced.

"How about you call me by my own name for once?"

"That's not as much fun." Tristin gave a grin and then Rory walked away from him. She wasn't out the door though before he called to her. "Bye Rory!" She smiled before turning around and giving him a wave. Then she drove home to meet her mother.


	4. Every Happy Family Is Alike But

"Mom, I'm home!" Rory threw her keys down on a table nearby and walked into the living room where Lorelai was set up in front of the TV with a pizza. "Hey mom." There was no reply from Lorelai so Rory sat down beside her on the couch. Without a word, Lorelai handed Rory a slice of pizza. Just as Rory was settling back to watch TV, her mom spoke.

"So who was the boy?" Rory turned to her mother whose eyes were still glued to the screen.

"Excuse me?" Now, Lorelai turned to Rory.

"On the phone, you cut me off like I was asking for a kidney or something, I deduced that there must be a guy involved. Am I wrong?"

"No, you 'deduced'," Rory put an emphasis on the word that mocked Lorelai. "correctly."

"Do I know this boy?"

"You did once. It was Tristin."

"Tristin, Tristin, oh." Lorelai finally pictured his face. "That cute boy from high school who called you Mary and was a complete ass?" Clearly Lorelai had not forgotten the many times Rory had complained about him and was still holding a grudge.

"He's changed mom."

"What new clothes? New hair?"

"No, new attitude. He's actually a pretty decent guy now."

"A cheetah can change its spots but it's still going to eat the gazelle."

"No more animal planet for you. And besides, we just had coffee it's not like we're getting married or anything."

"So how was it?" Lorelai seemed intrigued.

"It was…weird," Rory admitted.

"How weird, like a dog walking on two legs weird?"

"More like David Bowie in Labyrinth weird."

"Yikes. By the way, dinner with the grandparents tomorrow." Lorelai shoved the rest of her slice in her mouth and walked to the kitchen.

"Wait, what?" Grabbing a slice, Rory stood up and followed her mother to the kitchen. Lorelai was looking through her cabinets.

"Friday night dinners, you remember those right? They kind of feel like a mixture of getting your teeth pulled and hacked in half by a rusty chainsaw."

"Yes I remember them, I just don't know why you would agree to them again."

"I was kind of shanghaied. Luke and I were arguing over wedding things again and the phone rang and I was in the middle of a roll and you know how I get when I'm on a roll in an argument, I don't like to be torn away and I'll do pretty much anything to get back to the argument. Well it was my mother on the phone and she asked if we could go to Friday night dinner and I wasn't really thinking so I agreed. And then later, after the argument, I finally realized just what I had agreed to but it was too late." At the end of the ramble, Lorelai pulled a box of Oreos down furiously from her cabinet.

Rory moved to her mother and gently put her hand on Lorelai's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "Ok mom, deep breath. It's ok. We'll go. We'll eat dinner and then we'll leave. How bad can it be?"

"I believe that is a direct quote of everyone in the town before we went to Kirk's little play last spring. And you saw just how bad that was."

"Good point, pass me the Oreos."

"Are you sure we have to go?" Lorelai turned to Rory again. This was about the hundredth time she had asked Rory this very question since they had awoken this morning. Now they were standing on Richard and Emily's doorstep and Lorelai was still pleading to go home.

"Mom, you're all dressed up and we drove all this way. And besides Grandma and Grandpa haven't done anything particularly cruel lately."

"That's because they're saving it all up for tonight." Lorelai crossed her arms.

"Tell you what, I'll run interference. Whenever you feel trapped or something cough twice. Then I'll change the topic. Savvy?"

"Ok, Johnny Depp." Rory smiled and then rang the doorbell. After a bit, the door swung open to reveal a small, timid looking maid.

"Hi, we're the granddaughter and the daughter." The maid stepped aside to allow Lorelai and Rory entrance. She held out her arms to take their coats which they handed over. "A real talker that one," Lorelai whispered to Rory.

"Lorelai! Rory!" Emily strode into the foyer and swept the two of them up into her arms in a hug.

"Oh!" Lorelai exclaimed in shock. "Hi mom." Behind Emily's back Lorelai and Rory looked at one another with confused expressions.

"Come on into the living room and I'll fix you drinks." Emily walked away from them and they followed a few paces behind.

"The calm before the storm I tell you," Lorelai whispered to Rory.

"Or maybe this is going to be a nice evening."

"That's what they said before Kirk's salute to Japanese culture." Rory rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch beside her mother.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Emily asked.

"Club soda," Rory replied.

"Gin," Lorelai said. Emily smiled and fixed their drinks.

"Here you go." They both took the drink she offered them. "Now I'm going to go collect your father. I'll be back in a moment." With grace, Emily exited.

"Ok what's with stepford mother?" Lorelai asked Rory.

"Maybe we've all finally grown up and gotten past all of the bad things that happened between us."

"Or maybe mom's been going to a new pharmacist if you know what I mean."

"Mom! She is trying to make an effort and I suggest you do the same."

"Fine." Lorelai sipped her gin just as her parents entered.

"Hello Rory, Lorelai!" Richard called as he moved to the drink stand to make his and Emily's drinks. Emily glided into a chair.

"Thank you Richard." Richard had handed Emily her drink and then he sat down in his own chair. "So Rory, are you excited to have only one year left at Yale?"

"Yeah, but sad at the same time you know? I'm going to miss it."

"I remember my last year at Yale." Richard sighed in remembrance. "Squeezing in all the classes that I still wanted to take, staying up late for my final finals."

"A regular party animal weren't you dad?"

"Education was important to me Lorelai, but I did party with the best of them."

"Ok dad, I didn't mean to offend you."

"None taken." Richard raised his glass and then sipped. "So how are things at the inn?"

"Great, we've been fully booked for the past year."

"Excellent. You've done a great job with that place."

"Thanks dad." Lorelai smiled, thinking about how nice he was being.

"And how are things with Logan?" Emily turned to Rory.

"Unfortunately, not so great. We broke up."

"How awful," Emily and Richard said in unison.

"Not so much, it was very amicable."

"That's good, and Lorelai how are things with Luke?"

"Very good." Lorelai smiled again, thinking about her fiancée this time.

"Still getting married I assume." Some of her gin slipped down her throat the wrong way so she coughed, twice.

"Ummm, yesterday…" Rory jumped in immediately trying to think of a topic change.

"No, hon, it's ok. Just choked on some gin. Yes we're still getting married. Which brings me to telling you, July 6."

"July 6?" Richard looked at Lorelai as if she had just suggested he strip of his clothes and go dancing in the rain.

"That's when we're getting married. We've got the church booked and a reception hall. So don't plan anything for that day."

"We won't," Emily smiled. Despite the fact that there were men out there that would be far more suitable for Lorelai, this Luke made her happy and in the end that was all that really mattered.

"Good." Lorelai nodded. "And Dad, I know it's corny but it is kind of tradition so I was wondering if you would walk me down the aisle."

With tears in his eyes, Richard replied, "I would be honored." Lorelai smiled.

"Dinner's ready Mrs. Gilmore," the maid interrupted. The whole family stood and began to walk into the dining room.

"You know what, before dinner I'm going to go to the bathroom," Lorelai announced.

"Ok, but we're having some terrible plumbing issues so you're going to need to use the bathroom off our bedroom." Emily waved her hand to the stairs.

"Great, I'll be right back." Lorelai walked up the stairs and into the bathroom.

As she was washing her hands, Lorelai looked into the mirror and realized that she just couldn't stop smiling. For once she had gotten through drink with her parents and not wanted to participate in some crazy murder suicide thing. Lorelai dried her hands and then opened the door to the bathroom. As she walked into the bedroom, she looked around. She hadn't truly looked around this bedroom since, god knows when. Intrigued, Lorelai began to walk around the room and look at things setting out. There was a vanity in the corner covered in her mother's stuff. The dresser was half of her dad's things and half of her mother's. But the most interesting part was the pictures set up on various surfaces. Richard and Emily's wedding photo was set up in one corner. There were a few pictures of people that Lorelai didn't recognize but she assumed they were relatives. Then there were tons of pictures of Lorelai and Rory. Lorelai smiled realizing just how important she and her daughter were to her parents. The pictures showed Lorelai and Rory at various stages of their lives. Here was a sixteen year old Lorelai with a tiny baby Rory. Then there was a gap in the photos where Lorelai had left the house to go live in an inn. Then the pictures resumed their gradual progression up until a recent photo. Lorelai picked up the photo on the nightstand, one of the four of them that was taken last Christmas. As she set it back down, it knocked over a tiny figurine beside it and pushed it into the slightly open drawer below.

"Shit," Lorelai cursed as she opened the drawer further to search for the figurine. There it was on top of some document. Lorelai picked up the figurine and set it back where it had been, but an indention of the figurine was still on the document. Lorelai cursed again and then picked up the document. In an attempt to smooth it out she set in on the nightstand and ran her hand over it. As she was flattening it, she glanced down at it. It was a death certificate. Lorelai was curious why her parents had a death certificate by their bed so she glanced down at the date. It was dated Rory's exact birthday, time and year included. Printed on the name line, 'Baby Girl Gilmore'.


	5. Unhappy Families Are Uniquely Unhappy

Lorelai felt her chest tighten as her breath quickened. The word 'death' seemed to dominate the page in front of her, mocking her. What the hell was this? Was this her mother's idea of a sick joke? But that couldn't be, Emily hadn't thought Lorelai would see it. There was only one way to solve this mystery. The paper still clutched in her hand, Lorelai gently closed the drawer and walked down the stairs. The faint hum of conversation droned in Lorelai's ears but she couldn't make out exact words, her only focus was on the paper she was staring so intently at.

Rory was the first to notice her mother's return. "Mom, is there something wrong?" Rory looked to her mother who was absorbed in a paper. A paper that she was holding a death grip on. Lorelai looked up at Rory with tears in her eyes but didn't say a word. Silently, she walked to Emily's seat and set the paper in front of her. Rory was alarmed that her mother hadn't responded. "Mom, what is it?" Emily looked down at the paper and her eyes widened. Without a word, she passed the sheet across the table to Richard whose response was quite similar to that of Emily's. Rory reached out to grab the paper from Richard, feeling that it was her turn to see what it said, but Richard folded it and slid it across the table back to Emily. Frustrated, Rory implored them, "Could someone please explain." Both Richard and Emily were looking at Lorelai now who was turning from one to the other, a pleading look on her face yet no one said a word. Black streaks ran from both of Lorelai's eyes to her chin where her tears had run the mascara but Lorelai made no attempt to wipe them away. They were symbols of her betrayal. The silence began to hurt Rory's ears. "Someone say something, please. What is…"

"Rory please!" It was Lorelai, the first words she had said. "I think if anyone is going to talk it's going to be one of them." She looked first at her mother and then her father.

"Lorelai there's no need to talk about this…" Emily waved the document in the air. "…right now. What's in the past should stay in the past. Sit down and eat your roast," Emily chastised.

"Mom this isn't just something you can sweep under the rug! I want an explanation! No, I **need** an explanation." Emily shook her head and Rory caught a glimpse of tears in Emily's eyes before they were quickly brushed away.

"Lorelai…" Emily said with a sigh, but Richard cut her off.

"Emily, the girl deserves to know." Emily seemed to forget that Lorelai and Rory were there and instead focused on Richard.

Her voice became weak as she beseeched Richard. "Richard, we've kept it for so long. Why now?" Her fist beat on the table. "It will destroy everything." Tears fell from her eyes, but she didn't brush them away this time. Rory looked from her sobbing grandmother to her tearful, clearly hurt mother. It was a frightening sight. Rory looked to the only person in the room that hadn't broken down, her grandfather. His face was set in a determined look.

"Lorelai sit down," Richard commanded. Without hesitation, Lorelai set. This startled Rory. Her mother was notorious for disobeying her parents, why would she succumb now? Richard looked at his daughter and then at his granddaughter. "Rory, go take your dinner into the living room and close the door behind you." Rory didn't know how to respond but she didn't have to because her mother spoke for her.

"She stays."

"Lorelai I don't know if…" Emily had finally composed herself enough to speak.

"She stays," Lorelai repeated. Rory settled back in her chair.

"You want an explanation for this Lorelai. Well…" Richard started but was cut off.

"Richard if you don't mind, I want to tell her." Richard looked as if he did mind but said nothing and Emily continued. "We were never happy that you had gotten pregnant. I think that goes without saying. At first it disgusted us that you would even consider keeping the baby." At this point Emily gave an apologizing look to Rory before turning back and speaking directly to Lorelai. "But then we began to see how happy you were when you talked about the baby. How your face lit up when you bought baby clothes. As your due date came closer you became even more excited and a strange thing happened, we became excited too. As soon as you found out the sex of the baby, it became even more real to me. I began to imagine taking my granddaughter to tea and showing her off. Richard talked to me about things he wanted to teach the girl." Rory smiled at her grandparents. "And then the day you gave birth we came home to find the note telling us where you were. We rushed to the hospital and watched as they wheeled you into the delivery room. Through the pain I saw just how eager you were to be a mother. We waited outside for you and about an hour later, the doctor came out. He told us that unfortunately…" Emily began to choke on her words. "…the baby was a stillborn." Rory's eyes widened as did her mother's. Rory turned to her grandfather, who avoided eye contact. "I couldn't believe it, all the hopes we had had for a granddaughter had crashed in with one word out of that ignorant doctor's mouth." Emily took a moment to brush away some tears. "We went in to see you, but they said that you had passed out from the pain. As I looked at you lying there so innocent and beautiful I realized how devastated you would be when you found out that there was no baby. I had to save you, I was your mother after all. It was my responsibility to protect you from all the hurt in the world.

So as they took you into a recovery room your father and I talked. There was only one way to keep you from getting hurt and that was to prevent you from ever finding out. The only problem with our plan was that there was no baby for you. So we asked the doctor if there was any other woman in the hospital who had given birth to a girl. He told us that in fact there was another young mother in the next wing over. We asked him if she was keeping the child and he told us that he wasn't sure. We went to see the woman and found out that she was giving up the baby for adoption. We explained our…" she stumbled for a word. "…situation. The doctor and the woman saw how desperately we wanted a baby so we had an under the table adoption. The doctor made a birth certificate stating that the baby was yours and we named her as you had requested while in labor, Lorelai Leigh Gilmore. She was placed in a bassinet and taken away from us. Everything was going smoothly but there was still the stillborn. The doctor gave us the death certificate and we had the child buried in a small church yard.

When we went back to your room, you were awake and wanted to see your daughter. You were so happy when you first saw Rory that I thought we could just put it all behind us, forget the whole affair. But for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to throw away the death certificate. So I kept it and hid it from you. I never thought you would find out. How foolish I was. " Emily took a deep inhale as she finished. Lorelai had begun to sob and Rory was blinking furiously.

"Oh my god," Rory muttered. "Oh my god I was Rosemary's Babied!"

"Rory," Emily reached out to her but Rory pulled back.

"I can't believe….you…." she was stammering. Stunned, she looked from Richard to Emily before jumping up and running out of the house. Lorelai stopped sobbing and watched her go, but made no attempt to go after her. They heard the front door slam and then a squeal of tires as Rory peeled out of the driveway. Emily stood as if to go after her, but Richard motioned to her to sit back down, nodding his head in the direction of Lorelai. Lorelai was looking down at the tabled cloth in front of her while she traced the edge of her plate with a finger. Richard and Emily watched her for a few moments before she spoke.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lorelai whispered in a small voice.

"We knew that it would only hurt you," Richard answered. Lorelai nodded. Then she looked up at her parents, tears shadowing her eyes.

"And how do you think I feel now?" Her tone wasn't angry or accusing. It sounded like any other question. As if she was asking something as simple as what the weather was like. But her words still stung and Richard bowed his head. "Not to mention, Rory." Neither of her parents spoke. Lorelai wiped the tears from her eyes and then closed them for a moment. "I'm not mad at you two." At this, Emily and Richard both looked at her with shocked expressions, she had practically cut them out of her life for far less than this. She opened her eyes to face them and explain. "I'm not mad because what you did does not make me love Rory any less. She is still my daughter." Lorelai seemed as if she was trying to convince someone, maybe herself. Richard and Emily thought that that was all, but Lorelai continued. "And I'm also not mad because of the reason you did it. I'm proud of the two of you. I didn't think it possible, but for once you didn't do something purely for your own selfish gain, you did it for me and for my happiness. That really means a lot to me. More than you could know."

"We're so sorry Lorelai," Richard spoke. Lorelai nodded, not making eye contact.

"And now I have to go." The three of them stood. Emily and Richard followed her into the foyer. And as the maid handed Lorelai her coat, Emily walked towards her. Lorelai put her coat on and then looked at her mother. Emily smiled at Lorelai and reached her arms out to hug her but Lorelai stepped back. Her hand reached for the doorknob as she locked gazes with her confused mother. "I said I wasn't mad, I never said anything about not being hurt." Lorelai opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch when she heard her mother sniffle. Turning quickly, Lorelai attempted to smooth things over a bit. "Give it time mother. Let me have some time away from you. Time does wonders for pain." Lorelai smiled and then nodded once to her father before pulling the door shut behind her.

Though Rory had argued with Lorelai about taking separate cars, talking about what it was doing to the environment, she must have been so glad that they had indeed done just that. Lorelai walked to her jeep and had just enough time to get in before the tears started again. She beat the steering wheel furiously. Her whole life with Rory had been a lie. How could that be? But then Lorelai's tears subsided. Her whole life hadn't been a lie. The love she felt towards Rory was real. Lorelai smiled to herself and gave a relieved sigh. She could not begin to fathom how this was affecting Rory, but she knew that they needed to talk. Her engine rumbled to life and Lorelai backed from the driveway thinking about just where she should go to look for Rory.

After calling Paris and checking Lane's, Yale, the diner, Luke's apartment, and pretty much everywhere else in town Lorelai conceded defeat. Despondently, Lorelai parked her jeep in the driveway. She made her way to the front door and opened it gently. With a sigh she threw her stuff down in the foyer and moved into the living room. She flipped the lights on and gave a frightened gasp. Rory was sitting on the couch, apparently awaiting her mother's return in the dark. Though the lights had turned on, Rory didn't turn around.

"I parked my car in the garage," she clarified.

"Now why would you do a crazy thing like that?" Lorelai attempted to lighten the mood. It worked, Rory gave a slight chuckle. Lorelai walked around the couch and sat beside Rory on the couch.

"There's surprising amount of space in there."

"I know, who would have thought that I could keep a space clean." Rory nodded.

"I had no where else to go," Rory explained as tears began to fall from her eyes. Immediately, Lorelai wrapped her arms around Rory and pulled her to her.

"I know babe, I know," Lorelai repeated as she rocked Rory back and forth. And for the second time that night tears began to slip from Lorelai's eyes.


	6. Breakfast at Luke's

Sun poured in through the living room window and onto the pair of sleeping brunettes on the couch. The older one rolled over and fell onto the floor.

"Ouch!" Lorelai yelled as she awoke. Startled by the noise, Rory opened her eyes and looked down at her mother.

"You okay?" Rory asked groggily.

"Yeah." Lorelai stood up, rubbing her head. "I meant to do that. Thinking of joining an acrobatic act soon."

"Send me a postcard." Rory rubbed her eyes and sat up on the couch.

"So last night," Lorelai said as she sat down next to Rory. "Did I dream it all?"

"No." Lorelai and Rory sighed.

"Rory I just want you to know that it doesn't change anything for me. I still love you and I just want to put it all behind us. Let's just act like it was all some bad dream."

"I'm not that good at acting."

"Well neither is Pamela Anderson but she did Baywatch." Rory didn't say anything. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm really hungry." Rory stood up and walked to the kitchen. Lorelai closed her eyes for a second before following her into the kitchen.

"I thought you said we couldn't just act like it didn't happen."

"I'm not, I just don't want to talk about it." Rory was opening a cabinet.

"Rory we are notorious for talking things to death. And if anything needs to be talked to death it's this." Rory reached into the cabinet and pulled out a box of cereal.

"Please. I don't want to talk about it." She reached into the box and pulled out a handful of the cereal.

"Don't eat that." Rory gave Lorelai a questioning look. "It's dog food." Rory put the food back in the box and looked closer at the box. She shook her head and then reached into the cabinet to pull out another box. "Dog biscuits,' Lorelai informed her before she even had the box out.

"Why do they make dog stuff look so much like people stuff?" Rory mumbled to herself. "I didn't think you still had Paul Anka. I haven't seen him since I've been here."

"Yeah well Babette opened a bag of carrots in the house so he's in hiding until next week," Lorelai explained as she put the boxes back in the cabinet.

"So do you have any human food in the house?" Lorelai opened all the cabinets, checking.

"No."

"Great."

"Luke's?" Lorelai suggested.

"Luke's."

"Hey dolls!" Babette called to Lorelai and Rory as they passed her in the square. The two of them smiled at her but didn't say a word.

"Ok Rory eventually this whole mime routine is going to have to end and we'll need to talk about what happened," Lorelai said to her daughter. Suddenly a man ran by them.

"Lorelai, if Taylor comes through here, tell him I ran that way," Kirk told Lorelai as he pointed in one direction before running in the opposite direction.

"Lorelai, Rory…." Taylor started as he approached the two. Lorelai and Rory both pointed in the direction that Kirk had run. "Thank you." Huffing and puffing, Taylor followed Kirk.

Silently, Rory and Lorelai plopped themselves down at a table. Rory immediately opened a menu but Lorelai just stared at Rory.

"Hey," Luke greeted as he approached their table. He kissed Lorelai on the cheek who didn't tear her gaze from Rory. "Coffee's coming but other than that, can I get you two anything?"

"You can get my daughter to talk to me," Lorelai said sardonically.

"Why aren't you talking to your mother?" Luke turned to Rory. Rory sighed and looked up from her menu.

"I am talking to her, just not about the topic she wants to talk about. I'll have bacon and eggs." She folded her menu and handed it to him.

As Luke wrote it down, he continued the conversation. "So what do you want to talk about Lorelai?" Both Lorelai and Rory inhaled and turned to one another. Rory gave her mother a curt nod.

"When you get a minute Luke, I'd appreciate it if you would join us," Lorelai told him.

"Why did you suddenly get your 'I'm giving you the secret code' voice on?" Luke asked of her as he closed his order pad.

"Just when you get a minute," Lorelai repeated. Luke sighed and moved away. Moments later, he returned with two cups of coffee.

"Caesar and Zach are going to run the place for a while. So talk." Lorelai looked up at him and then at Rory who was sipping her coffee.

"Do you want me to tell him?" Rory asked her mother as she set down her cup. Lorelai shook her head.

"Luke you and I had this talk before about there being no secrets in our relationship. Well this is a pretty big one and I just found it out myself." Lorelai sighed and then decided to just spit it out. "Rory is not my daughter, well not biologically anyway." Luke was stunned. He looked from his fiancée to his future stepdaughter. They looked so much alike there was no way they weren't genetically related.

"Lorelai is this isn't very funny joke." Lorelai put her hand to her forehead, knowing that this would be tough to explain. At that moment Zach came over and gave Rory her breakfast. Calmly, Rory began to eat.

"I wish it was a joke Luke, but it's not."

"But the two of you…your hair…your eyes…how?"

"Last night at my parent's house I found a death certificate for a baby girl Gilmore. Then I confronted them and they told me that my baby was a stillborn so they found another young mother who was giving up the child and they had an under the table adoption and then gave me Rory, telling me that she was my biological daughter and never letting me know that the baby I gave birth to was dead." Luke was still stunned. He looked at Lorelai who seemed about to cry and then to Rory was still serenely eating her breakfast. How could she just sit there like it didn't affect her?

"Does this bother you Rory?" Luke was a bit annoyed that his fiancée was the one taking this harshly. She slowly chewed her bite and then gently set her fork down.

"Of course it 'bothers' me Luke. But I've had much longer to process this than you have. I got my cry out last night. And before the cry I had plenty of time to think. To plan. So yes it 'bothers' me, but I can deal with it." She picked up her fork and resumed eating as Lorelai and Luke looked on in disbelief.

"To plan?" Lorelai asked in a small voice.

"Pardon?" Rory asked between bites.

"You said that you had plenty of time 'to plan'. To plan for what?" Rory sighed and quickly shoved the rest of her food in her mouth. Luke and Lorelai watched as she chewed. "To plan for what Rory?" Lorelai repeated. Rory continued to chew.

"Dammit Rory, answer your mother!" Luke banged his fist on the table and customers around them turned. Lorelai and Rory looked to him in incredulity. Luke immediately felt embarrassed about his outburst, but he was just so mad. Mad because he thought that he could finally have the perfect little family, a perfect wife and perfect daughter. And now that wasn't going to happen. His image of the perfect family was shattered by his crying fiancée and his future stepdaughter who was acting like this was no big deal.

"I didn't want to tell you like this mom," Rory explained to her mother, shooting Luke a furious glare. "You know I love you right?" Lorelai nodded. "And this whole debacle doesn't change that. Not one bit. But I need to know who my biological parents are." Lorelai shook her head and the tears began to fall faster.

"Why Rory? If you love me then why does it matter who your biological parents are?" Feeling that this was a moment the two of them needed to share in private, Luke stood up and walked to the other tables telling them that the show was over and they needed to get out.

"Because mom, I need to know who I am. Where I come from." Lorelai looked down at the table. She touched her coffee mug as she fell into her thoughts. The door opened and closed as other customers left.

"Ok. I can't say I understand what it is you're doing, but if it's what you want go to your grandparents and ask them who your real parents are." Lorelai looked up at her daughter, with tears in her eyes.

"I didn't mean for this to hurt you mom." Lorelai nodded. Rory smiled in return and reached out to her mom giving her a hug. Lorelai did not return the hug but she didn't push Rory away. "I love you mom," Rory whispered to her before pulling back. Then she stood up and threw money onto the table. With a creak of the door, Rory made her exit leaving her mother sitting at the table by herself. All the other customers had been kicked out so it was just Lorelai sitting in an empty diner.

Luke had watched the whole scene unfold. He had seen Lorelai begin to cry and then he had seen the hug and Rory leaving. Now he watched as his fiancée watched her daughter walk away. Luke moved behind the counter to clean a few things up, thinking that Lorelai needed a moment alone. Long after Rory had disappeared down the road and could not be seen out the window, Lorelai was still staring after her. Luke threw his rag down with a sigh and then walked over to Lorelai.

"You ok?" he asked as he pulled a chair over to sit next to her. Lorelai didn't turn and still stared out the window.

"She wants to know her biological parents. She's going to find out who they are." Lorelai spoke in a quiet voice. Finally she turned to Luke and asked him a question that broke his heart. "Am I not good enough for her?" Luke put an arm around her and pulled her into his lap.

"Of course you are. You're a great mother." Lorelai's body shook with sobs. "You're a great mother." But it didn't seem to help because Luke soon felt his shirt being soaked with her tears.

"I'm losing her Luke," Lorelai sobbed into his chest. A tear rolled down Luke's cheek as he thought of just how true those words might be.


	7. Searching For Answers

Rory sighed heavily as she stepped from her car. She paused for a moment in the driveway staring at the house. Landscapers and various members of the staff moved around her but she didn't move. All the memories she had in this house, while they weren't all pleasant, were now unbearable. These people had lied to Rory her whole life. But they were the only ones that could tell her the truth now. Smiling politely to the gardener fixing the pots on the front porch, Rory walked to the door and knocked.

"Is Richard here?" Rory asked of the maid who answered the door. Rory had decided that she was far more likely to get a straight, truthful answer from her grandfather than her grandmother.

"Mr. Gilmore…study," the maid replied in broken English as she stepped back to allow Rory entrance.

"Thanks." Rory smiled and then walked to the door of her grandfather's study. Her hand was raised, prepared to knock, when she heard voices from within.

"We'll never see them again Richard," Emily's voice floated from the office.

"Lorelai said she wasn't mad," Richard explained, frustrated.

"Richard, she is my daughter you can't believe a word out of her mouth." Well at least Emily admitted what a dishonest person she was. Deciding that she really didn't want to have to deal with both of them, Rory backed up heading for the door. She hadn't gone two steps when the office door was flung open revealing a disheveled looking Richard and an upset Emily.

"Rory!" they both announced in shock.

"Look, I'm not here to forgive you or anything like that. In fact to tell you the truth right now I would not want to be stuck on an elevator with either of you and there's probably no one else on earth I disgust more but I need something from you." Normally Emily would probably have shot back with an angry comment of how rude Rory had been but the shock of the previous night's events had knocked everything Rory knew about her family out of balance.

"Go on," Richard prompted.

"No matter what biology says I still love my mother," Rory began.

"As you should," Richard said curtly.

"But I need to know them." Richard bowed his head as he understood what Rory wanted but Emily tried to protest.

"Rory I really don't think…" Emily started, but Rory held up a hand.

"To tell you the truth I really don't care what you think right now Emily." Rory spat the name. Emily stepped back from Rory as if she had been smacked.

"Rory, we know you're hurting but you must understand that we kept it from you for your own good," Richard explained. Emily looked at Rory with sad doe eyes and then moved to sit in a nearby chair.

"Will you just give me the names?" Rory asked, irritated. "Then I can just get out of here and I'll never have to see the two of you again."

"We'd love to give the names to you…" Richard said as he put on his glasses.

"Look you are not in the position to bargain with me."

"What I was going to say," Richard continued calmly. "Is that we'd love to give you the names, but we don't have them."

"Well then just call the records office or do some of that voodoo magic you insurance people can do and find them!" Rory stamped her foot like a child. Richard inhaled in an attempt to hold back his laugh.

"I'm afraid that since the adoption was under the table your original birth certificate was destroyed. There's no way of finding you real parents. And I think it's for the best that you can't find them it saves a lot of people a great deal of heartache." Emily gave a weak smile.

"Damn you!" Rory shouted at him.

"Young lady, while your grandmother may sit there passively and take everything you dish out to her, I will not tolerate it. Genetics or not we paid for Chilton when your mother could not afford it. Yale tuition came out of my pocket. And when you and your mother had that awful disagreement we put a roof over your head."

"And held it over my head ever since. Just because the birth certificate was destroyed does not mean that my parents are totally untraceable."

"No it doesn't, but I'm not going to perform long, extensive searches to find two people that frankly mean nothing to me and would only hurt my family."

"Yeah, well I will!" Rory turned from the office and ran out the front door, slamming it behind her.

Luke had finally calmed Lorelai down and had her set up at the counter with a vat sized mug of coffee. As he bustled around taking orders and bringing people their food, he kept one eye on his fiancée in the event that she had another meltdown. When there was a break in the constant stream of customers entering the diner, Luke took the chance to talk to Lorelai.

"So how you feeling? Better?" Lorelai nodded as she took a sip of coffee. "So I was thinking that maybe I could close early and we could work on wedding plans." Lorelai choked on her coffee.

"I don't think that those words were ever uttered by a man before."

"What, I'm going to close early."

"No the offer to work on wedding plans."

"Well maybe I'm just a more involved fiancée." Lorelai shrugged. Luke looked up as the diner door opened and new customers. He pecked Lorelai on the cheek and then started towards the new customers.

"Luke," Lorelai called to him. He pivoted to face her. "Are you just doing this because you feel sorry for me?" Luke stared into his fiancée's bright blue eyes and thought about the things he could say to her, the lies he could tell her to make her feel better. But he knew that somehow she would know that they were just that, lies.

"Maybe a little," Luke admitted and then walked off to take orders.

"Damnit!" Rory cursed at her computer as once again her search threw back no results. A few people sitting at nearby tables looked at her curiously and they had good reason.

After leaving Emily and Richard's house Rory had stopped by her mother's house knowing that Lorelai would still be at the diner and picked up her laptop. Then she drove all the way to the coffee shop where she and Tristin had sat together a mere week ago though it seemed like another lifetime. But to Rory it was. Then she had been Rory Gilmore, recently single, about to be senior at Yale; confident and got along decently with her family. And now who was she, Rory had no idea. She had no idea where she had come from and though that shouldn't have changed who Rory was now it had. Rory was much less confident with herself and more confused. So in her search for her parents, Rory had stationed herself at a table in the coffee shop for over an hour searching through public records and newspaper articles, anything she could find in an attempt to find something. Rory took the final sips of her fourth cup of coffee, thank goodness they gave free refills.

"Oh my…" Rory had just found it. Somehow she had linked and hacked into a record of all patients' admitted to the same hospital Lorelai had given birth in on the day of Rory's birth. Rory scrolled down to the maternity admits. There was her mother's name and then tons of other names. Rory didn't know where to start. She did have about the time that her biological mother gave birth so that narrowed it down to about ten women. Emily had also said that the woman was young like Lorelai. The women's ages weren't listed so Rory quickly jotted the names down on a napkin. Through some quick people searches Rory learned that only three of the women were around her mother's age. One currently lived in Georgia, one in Texas, and the other in California. And in that moment Rory decided that it wasn't enough to see these women's names. She needed to know which one was her biological mother and the only way to do that was to see them in person. There it was, Rory's roadmap Georgia, Texas, and California. Three states with not much in common except that they housed a possible biological mother. Rory's biological mother. She wrote down the addresses on another napkin, wishing she had something more official to write such important numbers on. Her eyes burned after staring at the laptop screen for so long but it had paid off. Rory shut her laptop with a snap, gathered her things, and walked out of the shop.

"Ok so now I'm all yours," Luke informed Lorelai as he finished wiping off the nearby table and plopped down next to her.

"Good because I'm tired of having to share you with Caesar. When we were dating it was ok for you to be dating him, but now that we're engaged it just feels…"

"What's all this?" Luke cut her off as he looked at the vast array of items filling the table in front of Lorelai.

"Wedding magazines, catalogues…" Lorelai began to list as she picked up items off the table, showing them to Luke. "…fabric samples, more wedding catalogues, and US weekly."

"How is that going to help us plan our wedding?"

"How else will we know what items to avoid because they destroy marriages?"

"You do know it's the people who destroy marriages, not weddings."

"For instance," Lorelai continued as if she hadn't heard him "we can't wear track suits before or after the wedding because that's what Britney and Kevin did and they're all over the cover of magazines talking about how messy their custody battle is."

"So track suits lead to divorce and custody battles?" Luke said as he shook his head.

"Precisely."

"You're crazy you know that?" Lorelai nodded. "And I love that about you." Lorelai smiled at him and then leaned into him. He took her face in his hands and kissed her long and hard.

"Well this isn't getting our wedding planned," Lorelai told him as she pulled back.

"Right." Luke pulled a magazine from the pile and flipped through it seeing the large amounts of overlarge flowers and over the top cakes. "So is there some kind of color theme?"

"Excuse me." Lorelai looked up from her magazine.

"I mean sometimes people pick a color like the color the bridesmaids wear and then they do all their decorations in that color." Lorelai laughed and put down her magazine.

"I was joking about the dating Caesar thing, but maybe I was right on."

"I was just…"

"Making comments gayer than Clay Aiken."

"Hey I have a sister, who got married and she was thinking about a color theme before she decided on the crazy circus one."

"I believe it was Renaissance," Lorelai said with a smile. "But no there's no color scheme yet. Though we could make it violent purple to match the bridesmaid's dresses."

"Why are they bright purple?"

"Long story," Lorelai said with a laugh. "I was really thinking flowers like this along the aisle." Lorelai put the magazine between the two of them so that Luke could have a look. When he leaned over Lorelai could smell him. She loved the way he smelled like big, strong man.

"Yeah those are nice," Luke commented and then looked back up at her. "You could look at that little shop on the corner to see if they have…" But Lorelai cut him off with a kiss. Her hands ran through his hair before she released him. "What was that for?"

"For doing this with me, even if it was just because you felt sorry for me."

"I'd do anything for you Lorelai," Luke whispered and Lorelai knew he meant it. Suddenly it made her sad for some reason.

"Can you go back twenty one years and make Rory my biological daughter?" The words slipped from Lorelai's mouth before she could stop them. The waterworks started again and for the second time that day, Lorelai found herself in Luke's arms sobbing for her daughter.


	8. The Companion

Lorelai threw her keys on the side table and sighed. She knew that Rory was home because she had seen her car in the driveway. But as Lorelai listened to the sounds around her house, Lorelai heard the shower and realized that she could put off another confrontation with her daughter for a while at least. What would Lorelai say to Rory? Would she ask her if she had gotten the names? Did she even care? Could she hide the pain in her expression when Rory told her that she did find the parents? For Lorelai knew that with all of Rory's computer smarts, she had indeed found the parents' names. Lorelai had to think of something else so she walked into her living room and pressed the play button on her answering machine.

"Lorelai, it's your father I was just calling to…" But what he was calling to tell her she didn't care. She pressed the delete button.

"He's probably calling to tell you that I went over there." Lorelai jumped as she spun around and put her hand to heart.

"Jeez Rory I thought you were in the shower."

"I was," Rory explained as she toweled off her hair. "What's up, you look like you've seen a ghost or something." Lorelai cocked her head curiously. "I know it's weird to say it, but they always say it on movies so I wanted to try it. Won't happen again."

"Right, so umm…" Lorelai tucked her hair behind her ear nervously.

"Yeah I found three possibilities." Rory and her mother sat down at the table.

"Good. So it's over now. We can just go back and pretend like we never figure this out. Like it never happened." Lorelai put her hand over Rory's. Rory sighed.

"Why are you making this so hard for me?" Rory's eyes began to water and she turned away from her mother.

"I'm sorry?" Lorelai asked for explanation.

"I'm going to find them." Lorelai pulled her hand back.

"Sorry, I think I heard you wrong, you're going to find them?"

"I need to know which one is my mother."

"Me! I'm your mother! I'm the one who rocked you back and forth when you cried. Who cried with you when you started school or when Dean broke up with you."

"I thought you understood mom. You are my mother, but I need to know about my biology. My genes. And the only way to do that is to go see these women, find out which is really my biological mother and talk to her."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing! You're just going to dump me and go find yourself a new mother!" Lorelai stood up.

"That's not what I'm saying at all," Rory defended herself.

"No, that's exactly what you're saying. You're leaving to god knows where…"

"Georgia, Texas, and California," Rory said softly. Lorelai shook her head in disbelief and began to inhale deeply to stop the tears. After a bit she settled down in the chair next to Rory. "I'm really sorry mom. This was not intended to be a jab at you." Rory put her arm around her mother. "But I need to know." Lorelai nodded.

"I know. I just got mad because I'm selfish. I don't want to have to share you with anyone else. I want you to be mine and no one else's."

"So you're ok with me going?" Rory asked.

"I guess I have to be," Lorelai replied quietly. "Wow, California that's a long way away." Rory nodded. "Well when are we leaving?" Lorelai asked of Rory. Rory pulled back from her mother and gave her a look.

"We?"

"Well yeah, you don't think I'm going to let you go all the way across the country alone do you?" Lorelai stood up.

"Mom, you can't go with me. You have a wedding to plan and besides, I really think that this is something I should do alone."

"I guess I saw that coming. But there's no way in hell I'm letting my twenty one year old daughter go all the way across the country by herself."

"Well then what do you propose I do?" Rory shot back as she stood up too.

"Luke." Rory laughed immediately, picturing Luke in California.

"I don't think so."

"Well Rory then you come up with someone because I'm not letting you go by yourself."

"Mom I decided I'm leaving in two days, do you really think someone's going to drop everything and just come with me?"

"You're a pretty girl," Lorelai used as an explanation and then walked into the living room. Rory listened to the sounds of the television as she thought. Who the hell was she going to get to make a spontaneous cross-country trip with her? Suddenly a face popped into her head. Words floated back to her "I'm impressed because you actually live, I wish I had that." Figuring that this was her only option Rory raced into her room and searched through her bag. Finally she found the napkin on which he had printed his number. Rory collected her phone and punched in the number with an unsteady hand.

"Tristin Dugray," Tristin answered.

"Hey Tristin it's Rory!" Why was Rory's voice suddenly small and a bit shaky?

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Tristin sounded amused.

"Ok this is going to sound like a completely ludicrous question and feel free to laugh at any moment, but I remembered that you said you wanted to live some more at the coffee shop…"

"Rory, I don't need the War and Peace sized explanation just ask."

"Two days from now would you be interested in going on a trip with me?" Rory held in her breath as she waited for his reply.

"What kind of trip?" Rory knew that this would come up sooner or later but she would have preferred later.

"See it turns out that I'm adopted so now I'm going on this trip to find my birth mother. I've got three possibles so we'll be going to Georgia, Texas, and California." Rory listened as Tristin thought it over.

"You said we."

"What?"

"You said we'll be going. What makes you so confident that I'll say yes?"

"Well, I just…" Rory became instantly flustered but Tristin began to laugh and Rory realized that he was just teasing her.

"Relax, the trip sounds great. I've got plenty of time to set up things around here so that I'll be ready in two days. How about I pick you up about seven on Wednesday?"

"AM?" Rory asked, slightly shocked at the time and slightly shocked that he was agreeing to accompany her.

"I'll bring coffee. Lots and lots of coffee."

"Great. See you then. And Tristin?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks." Tristin laughed and then Rory heard the click. Rory smiled, suddenly more excited to be going. She set her phone on her bed and then joined her mother in the living room. "I'm leaving on Wednesday at seven." Lorelai turned to her daughter.

"You found someone?"

"Tristin."

"Oh intrigue." Rory laughed and sat down next to her mother to watch the cooking show.

The sound of gravel in the driveway announced Tristin's arrival. Rory rushed from her position beside the window and walked to the front door. "Mom, Luke he's here!" She yelled into the interior of the house as she slipped on shoes. Rory looked around the house, memorizing everything about it before she flung the door opened. "Hey!" She called to Tristin. They had an awkward moment where it seemed the both finally realized what they were doing. The two of them had never gotten along particularly well in high school and then lost contact after that. Now they were about to just take off together. Their awkward moment was broken when Luke and Lorelai walked out onto the front porch, Lorelai still in her pajamas and looking very sleepy.

"Tristin Dugray." Tristin announced as he extended his hand first to Lorelai who shook it and then to Luke who looked at it rather angrily before gruffly shaking it.

"Tristin this is my mom Lorelai, and my future step father, Luke." Rory pointed to the two. The moment turned silent as Luke stared daggers at Tristin and Lorelai tried to hide her giggles. "Oook, well we better get my stuff in the car."

"I'll do that," Tristin announced, glad to have an excuse to get away from Luke.

"I'll help," Luke told him and the two walked into the house. Rory thought she heard the words "hurt her" and "kill you" come from Luke's mouth but she didn't focus on them long because now was the moment she had been dreading. She had to say goodbye to her mom.

"So this is it," Lorelai said wishing that it wasn't.

"Mom, I'm not dying. I'll be back before the summer's over."

"But you'll be different."

"No…" Lorelai held up a hand.

"You will. It's inevitable. You'll have traveled across the country with a boy and met your biological mother. You'll do a lot of growing up on this trip, I've prepared myself for it." The two began to cry.

"I love you mom!" Rory cried as she threw her arms around Lorelai's neck

"Ditto," Lorelai concurred. They broke apart as the door slammed open. Luke and Tristin walked across the yard and threw Rory's bags in the trunk. Lorelai put her arm around Rory and the two followed the men. Tristin slammed his trunk shut as Rory walked over to Luke.

"Luke when I get back I expect you and mom to have the whole wedding planned and I expect you to have burned my bridesmaid dress." Luke looked confused.

"I won't let you down." Rory and Luke looked at one another. Luke had never been one for affection. "Come here." He opened his arms and Rory threw herself into his chest. "I love you Rory," Luke whispered to her.

"I love you too Luke." Rory smiled as she pulled back. Luke kissed her on her forehead and then walked over to join her mother.

"Well let's let the quest commence," Tristin joked.

"Ok no picking up any boys no matter how cute they are," Lorelai instructed her daughter as Rory got in the car. "That goes for you too Tristin." Tristin laughed.

"I'll try my hardest to resist." Tristin nodded curtly to Luke and waved at Lorelai before getting in the car and starting it. "You're mom's pretty funny." Tristin said as he buckled his seat belt.

"She thinks so," Rory responded as she did the same.

"She's pretty cool though," Tristin added as he backed from the driveway. Rory's eyes were locked on the two people standing in front of the house she had grown up in. Luke had his arm wrapped around her mother's waist. Rory raised her hand and waved. They both waved back and Rory saw Lorelai wipe away a tear.

"Yeah, she is." Rory settled back in her seat as her house disappeared from view and she began to think of the trip ahead of her.


	9. Making it True

Lorelai rolled over in her bed. Her arm hit something soft. She looked over and saw Luke snoring away. She smiled remembering last night but her smile quickly faded when she remembered things that happened before last night. The only reason Luke stayed over was because Rory was gone. Lorelai rolled out of bed and padded into the bathroom. Her hair was a mess and she looked like hell. Was this what it was going to be like when Rory left for good? Waking up every morning looking worse than she had the night before. No, when Rory left for good it wouldn't be as painful. Rory wouldn't be out replacing Lorelai. Lorelai shook her head. That was not what Rory was doing. She had explained it. She just needed to know. Cold water rushed from the faucet and Lorelai splashed a bit of it on her face. It was time to face the music.

"Morning sleeping beauty," Rory chirped as Tristin opened his eyes. He looked first out the front window and then at her.

"What are you doing driving?" he asked, sitting up.

"Well I slept a lot yesterday and when you woke me up at the gas station I think it was about midnight. I ran in to grab us some sustenance and when I came back out I found you slumped over the wheel, passed out with sleep. So some nice men at the gas station helped me position you in the passenger's seat and then I took over the driving. And don't worry I only had to tell them once to stop touching you awkwardly."

"You're making that up."

"No they were pretty gay, did I forget to mention that?" Rory smiled mischievously.

"Ok pull over."

"Why?"

"It's my car, pull over!" Rory glanced at him quickly and then merged into the far right lane before pulling off on the shoulder.

"First of all," Tristin started as he got out of the car. "don't drive my car without my permission. And secondly never let gay men touch me again while I'm sleeping." Rory had joined him outside of the car and the two of them stood facing one another.

"What is the big deal? I didn't let them take the pictures of you like they asked. And the car thing, that's ridiculous I have my license. I'm a good driver." Rory said a bit jokingly.

"Good driver or not it is not your decision to drive my car!" Tristin roared at her. Rory backed up a bit. "This is my car! Not yours! I drive, you don't! Got it?" As she swallowed, Rory nodded. "Why did I even agree to come on this damn trip?" Tristin asked himself.

"I don't know, but maybe it would have been better if you hadn't come," Rory shot back. He looked up at her and her face seemed to pull him back.

"God Rory, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to explode like that at you."

"Then why did you?" Rory knew there had to be a story behind his anger.

"I don't know, I'm just cranky when I first wake up." Despite her disbelief, Rory nodded. "So where are we headed?"

Realizing that she wasn't going to get anymore out of him, Rory sighed and agreed to change the subject. "I thought we'd start with the Georgia address."

"Georgia great, Atlanta, rednecks, peaches." Rory snorted, somehow she thought there was more to Georgia than just that. "Well get in the car, we better be going." Tristin walked around and opened her door for her. As she buckled her seat belt she watched him through the front window. Mouthing words to himself, he ran his hand repeatedly through his hair. Suddenly, he shook his shoulders and then got in the car. "Georgia, here we come," he announced as he started the engine. Rory smiled politely but right now it wasn't Georgia on her mind, it was Tristin's odd behavior.

"I think we did well," Luke told Lorelai as he removed her coat for her. "We certainly brought that priest's price down."

"Yeah, who knew priests were so horny," Lorelai laughed.

"Aw jeez, what did you do?" Luke hung up their coats and followed her to the kitchen.

"Well, while you were running around the church looking at beams and all the other doo dads, I flashed him one of my million dollar smiles and then I leaned towards him like this." Lorelai leaned into Luke and lowered her voice to a whisper. "And then I talked to him like this. And I asked him if he could maybe shave off a few hundred dollars."

"Lorelai!" Luke pulled away from her. "Once we're married no more of…of…" Luke couldn't seem to find a word. "…that." He waved his hand in her general direction.

"Once we get married, it's the convent for me." Luke rolled his eyes.

"What do you want for dinner?" He opened the fridge.

"Well I don't know, now that I know once we get married I'm off limits, I'm thinking I might like to play the field a bit. Maybe call that priest and see if he's interested in dinner tonight."

"Chicken fine?" Luke asked.

"All right." Lorelai sighed and sat down at the table. "Paul Anka!" Pounding sounded on the stairs and moments later a big ball of fur came barreling into Lorelai's legs. "Hey boy, you finally surfaced. I've missed you." Lorelai kissed his wet nose. As Luke prepared dinner, Lorelai watched him, petting Paul Anka's head absently. Her eyes drifted to the dog and then to the closed door that lead into Rory's bedroom. Lorelai blew a puff of air out and then averted her eyes. That was the last thing she needed, to start crying.

"So now we have the church and the reception hall." Luke began to tick things off as he pierced his chicken with his fork.

"And Sookie's making the cake and catering," Lorelai added as she swallowed.

"And you've got the bridesmaid's dresses."

"Well I have an option for the dresses, but I'm still looking for more options."

"Have you found your dress yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Well you better get on that."

"I will." To tell the truth, Lorelai was putting off buying the dress in the hopes that Rory would be home in time to go dress shopping with her.

"So a talked to a couple of people today," Luke said with a cough.

"Yeah? Who?"

"Well," Luke seemed nervous. "Their names start with E and R."

"Elvis and Regina Spektor?" Lorelai faked excitement.

"Why would Elvis be hanging out with Regina Spektor? And isn't Elvis de…never mind. No I talked to Richard and Emily today."

"Why?"

"They called to ask if you were all right."

"Did they now?" Lorelai's fork stabbed into her chicken violently.

"I told them that you were still angry, and I explained about Rory."

"Well good for you." Holes covered the chicken where Lorelai's fork had stabbed into it.

"I asked them about what they did and we got onto the topic of the…other baby. Your baby. And what they did to her." Lorelai picked up her knife and began to cut her holey chicken. Luke felt that he didn't need to go into further detail. "I got the address from your parents. I really think you should go to the grave. I'll even go with you if you want." Lorelai turned to him angrily.

"No! I'm not going!"

Luke reciprocated her anger. "Why the hell not?"

"Because I don't want to!" Her voice cracked and tears clouded her vision. "Because if I go and I see that grave, it'll be true."

Luke's voice softened. "What will?" he asked as he put his arm around her.

"I've been telling myself that this thing is all just a bad dream. That soon I'll wake up and Rory will still be mine, all mine. But if I go to this grave it'll prove that it's true. And just like that Rory will be replaced." Luke pulled her to him.

"No one can ever replace Rory."

"But someone can replace me," Lorelai told him.

"No they can't!" Luke pushed her away from him a bit and held her at arms length, looking into her eyes. "You were an excellent mother to Rory. She's not going to forget that." Lorelai's tears fell a bit more rapidly.

"You said were." Luke's mouth opened as if he wanted to defend his word choice, but he closed it not knowing what to say. "I think I will go," Lorelai muttered weakly.

Wind whipped Lorelai's hair around her head as she stepped from the car. Luke slammed his car door and the sound seemed to echo around the area, bouncing off the stones and reverberating through Lorelai's whole body. Lorelai stared through the iron gates to the space beyond. She jumped a bit when Luke appeared at her side and put his arm around her shoulders.

"You ready?" Luke asked her. Lorelai opened her mouth to reply but her throat was so dry that no sound came out. She nodded meekly. Somehow, her feet moved without Lorelai's consent. Luke guided her to the gates and pushed them open. He closed it behind them and the two of them stood at the entrance looking around. Everywhere they looked there was a headstone. Some were adorned with flowers and some just stood plain and lonely looking. Here and there were high marble statues. A few benches were spread sporadically throughout the entire cemetery. Luke cleared his throat. "Er, Richard and Emily didn't tell me exactly where it, I mean she is or was." Clearly, Luke had expected a smaller cemetery. Or maybe he had suspected that since it was Lorelai's child she would somehow know exactly where the grave was. That some maternal instinct within her would lead her to her baby's grave. But right now the only maternal instinct within Lorelai was screaming for her to turn around and walk away. To go back home and call her daughter. Her real daughter. But that wasn't right. She couldn't call her real daughter. Her real daughter was buried somewhere in this cemetery. Lorelai took a step to the left. She looked out across the cemetery and saw a small headstone standing in the back of the cemetery. There were no other headstones around it and no flowers stood near it. Lorelai walked pointedly towards it. "Lorelai where are you going?" Luke asked her as she sped up her pace. "Lorelai where?" Luke started as he caught up to her at the headstone but she cut him off when she pointed to the headstone. "Oh." Lorelai turned to the headstone and read it. 'Baby Girl Gilmore' was etched deep into the stone. There was nothing else on the stone. No date of birth or death which would be one in the same. Nor was there any remark about how loved she was on Earth. Because Lorelai realized that she wasn't. She hadn't lived long enough for her mother to love her. No one had seen her alive. So here she was just discarded in some old cemetery to be forgotten. Lorelai's knees sank into the soft grass as she knelt. Luke backed away, feeling that she needed her privacy. A single tear rolled down Lorelai's cheek as she brushed some dirt away from the name.

"Goodbye," she whispered to the headstone and then she stood quickly, wiping her eyes. "Let's go." She announced to Luke. He seemed shocked that she would suggest leaving so soon.

"Don't you want to…"

"No, let's go." Lorelai beat him to the gate but she let him be the gentleman he was and open it for her. As they drove away, Lorelai looked back. Through the fence, Lorelai could just barely make out a small headstone sitting by itself in a corner as the weeds encroached upon it. Lorelai wiped away another tear and then turned to face forward.


	10. Possible Number One

Rory had spent the past couple of days watching Tristin. He too seemed to sense the awkwardness of his blow up so he went in the exact opposite direction. He was overly nice to Rory. Rory tolerated it, but right now what she really craved were some answers. To avoid another outburst, Tristin had taken to pulling over in parking lots when he got tired so that he could sleep. Rory stayed awake, watching him sleep and wondering what was torturing him so.

"You got the map?" Tristin asked her. Rory nodded. "Good. Now steer me towards this address you found." Rory smiled and turned around in her seat. From one of her bags, she pulled a crumpled napkin with the three addresses on it. She held it up to her map and trailed a finger over various roads.

"Take a left up here," she instructed. Tristin did as he was told. "Right at the light."

"Gilmore's a poet and she didn't know it." Rory rolled her eyes at him but to tell the truth she was happy. That was more like the Tristin she knew and lo…well tolerated.

"And then we just drive straight for a while." Tristin nodded. Rory carefully folded the map, thinking about what she was about to do. "So Tristin?"

"Hmm."

"I was wondering if maybe you could explain to me what the change in attitude was about."

Tristin smiled. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on since you yelled at me every comment you've made has been so sweet they've given me cavities." Tristin's face fell a bit.

"Well maybe I just feel bad about yelling at you for no reason."

"Was it? For no reason I mean."

"What you mean that people normally yell at you for driving their cars without their permission even though the owner of the car is sitting right next to you?"

"No, but it's just…well to me there seems to be more to the story than you just being mad because I didn't get your permission." Tristin opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it realizing that he really didn't want to answer her.

"What was the address you said?" Rory repeated it.

"So is there more to the story?" Tristin looked into her eyes and for a minute Rory thought that he was going to confide in her. Tell her something that no one else knew. But her images were shattered when Tristin pointed one finger at her window. Rory turned her head and saw that they were parked right next to a mailbox. Looking first at the number on the mailbox and then at the number on her napkin Rory made the connection.

"Go on," Tristin urged her. Rory took a few deep breaths and then got out of the car. She closed the door gently behind her and then took a couple of tentative steps up the front walkway. She looked back at Tristin sitting in the car. He waved his hand, telling her to go on. Rory took a couple more steps and then she lost her nerve. Quicker than she had left it, Rory returned to the car.

"I can't do it. Let's go," Rory told Tristin as she buckled her seat belt.

"We came all the way here and you're not even going to go in?" Rory nodded.

"Sounds about right. Ok drive." Tristin laughed. He smiled at her and got out of the car. "Where are you going?" Rory yelled after him. She watched as he walked around the car and opened her door.

"Come on." She crossed her arms.

"I don't think so."

"I drove you all this way, I'm not going to let you chicken out now. Your mother could be sitting in that living room right now, looking out the window and wondering why a stunningly handsome man is trying to get a pouting woman out of the car."

"Stunningly handsome?" Tristin flashed smile and Rory couldn't help but smile back. She missed him, the real him. "Well what if it's not my mom in there?"

"There's only one way to find out." Tristin reached across Rory and unbuckled her seat belt. Rory felt the muscles in his chest and for a moment she stopped breathing. Her stomach bubbled and it wasn't nerves. But before she could figure out just what she was feeling he had pulled away from her. Did Rory imagine it or had he tensed up too? Soon the tension was gone and Tristin was tugging on her arm.

"I'm not going," Rory pouted. Finally, Tristin succeeded in pulling Rory out of the car and getting her to walk a couple of steps up the walkway.

"See you can do it."

"No I can't." Rory wriggled out of his grip and ran back to the car for the second time. She pulled on the handle to open her door but it didn't budge. She turned back to Tristin who smiled and held up his keys.

"I locked it. Either you go up to that door or we stand here until someone calls the cops."

"You forget, I've been arrested before. I know that it's not that big of a deal." Once again, Rory crossed her arms and leaned against the car. Shaking his head in disbelief, Tristin approached her. "What are you doing?" Rory began to panic as he came closer.

"You're getting to that door one way or another and if you're not going to walk that only leaves one option." At his last words, Tristin wrapped his arms around Rory picking her up off the ground before throwing her over his shoulder.

"Put me down!" Rory squirmed but she felt his grip tighten on her and she felt the two of them moving up the walkway.

"You have a pretty nice ass Gilmore," Tristin joked ignoring her protests.

"Yeah well you don't. Put me down!"

"Ok." Tristin sat her down and Rory relished in the thought that she had won before she realized that he had sat her down right in front of the door. She stared at the door for a moment. Her fear must have shown on her face because soon she felt Tristin move closer to her. He leaned down and whispered into her ear. "I'll be right here." He took her hand and gave it a quick squeeze before releasing it. Rory's heart thudded faster. Drawing strength from Tristin's gesture, Rory knocked on the door.

Moments later the door was flung open. A girl about Rory's age stood in the doorway. Her hair was thrown up in a messy ponytail. Rory looked at the girl's Metallica tee-shirt and her torn jeans. Could this perhaps be a half-sister that Rory never knew she had?

"Can I help you?" the girl asked. Rory was too stunned to speak. "Oh you're those damn Jehova's witnesses aren't you? Sorry we're not interested." As the girl began to swing the door shut, Tristin elbowed Rory.

"N..No," Rory stammered. Her voice sounded like it hadn't been used in centuries. "We're not from a religious group." The girl seemed to soften and she opened the door some more. "We're actually here to see if you know a…." Damn, why couldn't Rory remember the woman's name? Someone must have been looking out for her because when she reached into her pocket she found the napkin. "A Mary Kingston. Does she live here?"

"Yeah she does," the girl responded, now a bit suspicious. "That's my mom." So it was possible that Rory had a half sister. Rory just stared at the girl.

"Um, do you think we could talk to her?" Tristin took over.

"She's not home, but is there something I can help you with?"

"Umm this is kind of hard to ask, but when is your birthday?" Tristin questioned.

"November 15." The girl raised an eyebrow.

"The year?"

"1984." Rory's heart fell into her stomach. This wasn't the house of her biological mother. This wasn't her half sister she was looking at. This was some random family. This girl was just someone who happened to be born on the same day as Rory. A tear fell from her eye. "Hey is she ok?" the girl asked Tristin, looking at Rory whose tears began to fall faster.

"Yeah, thanks for all your help. We need to go now." Tristin put an arm around Rory and began to steer her to the car.

"Hey, do you want me to tell my mom that you stopped by?!" the girl hollered after them.

"No that's ok," Tristin yelled back, his eyes not leaving Rory's face.

"Freaks," the girl mumbled to herself as she shut the door.

Tristin got Rory settled in her seat, still crying. "It's not her."

"I know," he soothed as he stroked her hair. "But hey, we've still got two more options right?" Rory nodded meekly. "So what do you say we get going? Texas all right with you?" Rory nodded again. "Well let's go then." Rory smiled at him as he shut her door and then ran in front of the car to get in on his side.

"Tristin I know I've already said this but thanks for coming on this trip with me."

"Hey I wouldn't miss chance to see Mary fall apart. It's so biblical." Rory laughed and wished that he would be serious.

"No really…"

"Relax Rory." He put his hand on hers. "I know." She looked up at him and locked eyes with him. There was no way he knew. No one could truly know just how grateful she was to him.

"So I was wondering if you wanted flowers on the cake." Sookie told Lorelai and Luke. The three of them had spread things across the counter at the diner. Lorelai was absentmindedly flipping through a magazine and Luke was making burgers. Sookie had a pad of paper in front of her and was attempting to sketch what they wanted their cake to look like.

"Wouldn't that taste funny?" Lorelai asked.

"They're not real," Luke responded.

"He keeps doing that. Here I think I'm marrying a man that loves me, and then he says something like that and I begin to think that maybe I'm marrying Miss Jay." Sookie snorted.

"Who the hell is that?" Luke asked.

"So flowers yay or nay?" Sookie changed the topic.

"Yes," Lorelai told her, ignoring Luke. Lorelai smiled at Luke as Sookie wrote something down. The diner door opened.

Sookie was still looking at her paper and didn't see who had walked in nor had she sensed the tension. "Ok so then I guess my next question is…"

"What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked.

"No I was actually going to ask…"

"Sookie!" Luke pulled her back to reality.

"Well hello to you too," Christopher greeted Lorelai. "Sookie," Christopher nodded to her. "Luke." Luke grumbled a bit.

"Chris I thought I made it pretty clear that last time I saw you, I wanted it to be the last time I saw you."

"That thing at your parents' wedding? I thought you were just frustrated with Rory which to tell you the truth…"

"The hell you did!" Luke roared, stepping from behind the counter. "You stay away from my fiancée."

"So what, she won't have anything to compare you to and might not realize she's making the biggest mistake of her life marrying you!"

"Hey!" Lorelai shouted.

"Maybe I should get going." Sookie began to collect her things.

"Sookie sit down. If anyone's going to get going it's going to be him!" Lorelai jabbed a finger at Christopher as Sookie plopped down on a stool.

"Look Lorelai I know things didn't go so well with us before," Christopher pleaded. "but I promise you things will be better. We belong together Lorelai. We have a beautiful daughter together."

Lorelai rubbed her forehead. She knew this would come up. "No we don't," she said quietly. Most of the town knew that Rory wasn't biologically Lorelai's yet the man who thought he was Rory's father didn't know.

"Look I know I was a pretty absent father, but…"

"No Chris! She's not yours!"

"Excuse me?"

"She's not even mine. It's a long story, but basically our baby was stillborn. Rory was given to me and passed off as my biological daughter."

"So genetically she's not mine?" Christopher was in shock.

"No. And you being the 'absent father' that you are," Lorelai used his words against him. "means that she's not yours in any way. Which makes it even easier for me to do this." Lorelai took a deep breath. "I never want to see you again Chris. If by chance our paths do cross in a grocery store or something I want you to walk on by and pretend as if you don't even know me because that's what I'll do to you." Sookie's eyes widened. Christopher just shook his head and then turned to storm out of the diner. Luke walked up to Lorelai and put an arm around her shoulder.

"You did the right thing."

"I know."


	11. Green Apples and Surprises

"Morning fiancée!" Lorelai called. Luke was standing in her kitchen making pancakes.

"Well someone's chipper this morning."

"Yeah, I'm just feeling really good about last night." Luke turned to her to see if she was serious and Lorelai smiled at him widely.

"Really?" Lorelai nodded but suddenly her face fell.

"No," she sobbed. "I feel terrible, I mean maybe I should have been a bit more tactful when I told him that Rory wasn't his." Luke threw down his spatula and wiped his hands off before walking over to her.

"You were tactful enough. He needed to know." His hand rested on her shoulder gently.

"Yeah, you're right." Immediately, Lorelai perked up. Removing his hand, Luke gave her an odd look.

"Are you all right?"

"Besides the fact that I haven't had my morning jolt, yeah. Why?"

"It's just you seem to be a bit moody this morning."

"I am not!" Lorelai stood up angrily. "Ok maybe a little. It's just that this whole Christopher thing has thrown me out of whack. Plus I was sick this morning. Add to that the fact that my one and only daughter is traipsing the country with a boy in tow and you have a recipe for mood swings."

"Do you need me to take you to a doctor?" Luke put his hand to her forehead.

"I'm fine now." She took his hand.

"Are you sure?" She kissed his hand.

"Your pancakes are burning."

"I love this song," Rory sighed as she closed her eyes. She and Tristin were sitting in his car, eating their dinner in the parking lot of Wall Mart. Tristin smiled at her and set his burger down. Without a word, he walked around the car and opened her door. He leaned across her and turned the radio dial up. Rory wiped her mouth and set her food down as she tried to ignore her heart thudding loudly in her chest. Tristin leaned back and extended a hand to her.

"May I have this dance?" Rory laughed.

"I…I'm not a very good dancer."

"Oh come on it's a slow song. Everyone can slow dance. Besides I'm a very good dancer so it'll make up for your suckiness." Laughing, Rory took his hand.

She assumed that they would do the awkward, five feet between them middle school style of slow dancing but Tristin immediately pulled her close. One of his hands held one of hers and the other sat on her waist. They rocked back and forth to the music. Rory felt her hand begin to sweat and she thought that it would slide from Tristin's grasp. Or worse, he would be disgusted and pull back. But when she looked up at him he just smiled back at her. His smile sent Rory's heart beating spastic rhythms again. Once again Rory began to panic. What if he could feel her heart beat? It was going fast enough that she wouldn't be surprised. In an attempt to put some distance between them, Rory tried to take a step back but Tristin's hand tightened around hers.

"Is it hard for Mary to be this close to a member of the opposite sex?" Tristin joked.

Rory had a sharp retort ready for him but it seemed that her feet had a different idea. Before she knew it she had taken a step forward rather than back and rested her head on his shoulder. Tristin's eyes widened in shock but Rory didn't see. In fact she wasn't even sure if she did this to shock him or for her own selfish reasons. Finally the two of them realized that the song had stopped, in fact it had probably stopped a long time ago. Rory pulled back and made eye contact with Tristin. His eyes bore into her until she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Well we better get going if we want to be in Texas before the summer's over." She turned and walked to the car.

"Summer doesn't end for another month and a half," Tristin called to her but she was already in the car. Shaking his head in frustration, Tristin joined her in the car.

"Hey Sookie?" Lorelai called as she entered the kitchen of the Dragonfly.

"Yeah." Sookie was bustling around throwing this spice in that soup and chopping this to put in that.

"Do you know of any gyms around here?" Lorelai asked as she jumped up to sit on the counter.

"Gyms?" Sookie didn't turn around.

"You know gyms, big muscle guys groaning every time they pick something up even if it weighs like two pounds." Lorelai picked up a green apple from a nearby basket.

"Why does Luke want to go the gym?"

"I didn't say Luke wanted to go to the gym. I was thinking I might go." Lorelai turned the faucet on and washed off the apple. Sookie laughed.

"You, the gym?"

"Yeah well I saw that Ok Go music video," Lorelai joked.

"Seriously?" Wiping her hands off, Sookie turned to face Lorelai.

"No Sookie." Lorelai dried off the apple and then took a bite of it. "I don't know I've been doing things out of character lately. It could be because I'm sick."

"You're sick." Sookie walked towards her.

"Not right now, I just threw up this morning. And the past few mornings. And oh my god!" Lorelai dropped from the counter.

"Oh my god what?" Sookie smiled.

"Things out of character, sick in the mornings…" Lorelai turned her head to look at the apple in her hand, horrified. "Ah!" The apple rolled under the counter as she dropped it on the floor.

"Ah!" Sookie cried a bit more excitedly than Lorelai. "You're pregnant!" Sookie took Lorelai's hands and began to jump around but she stopped when she saw Lorelai's dismayed face. "I'm the only one jumping. It's not me having a baby. Come on jump with me." Sookie resumed jumping but Lorelai still didn't join in. "Why am I the only one jumping?"

"Sookie it's just that…"

"Oh my god you and Luke are breaking up. I knew it I knew you wouldn't get married. You don't have the best track record. I mean you've had a kid with one guy and then gotten engaged to another guy. But I thought Luke was different. I thought that maybe he could tame the wild beast, but I guess not. Well there goes the cake I made."

"Sookie! Come back to me." Lorelai waved her hand in front of Sookie's face. "Luke and are still together. We're not breaking up. It's just that this baby isn't coming at the best of times. I mean I just lost one of my kids…"

"You didn't lose Rory, she's coming back I know it."

"She hasn't called me a single time since she left."

"She just needs her space is all. Don't worry about Rory."

"Ok, well don't you think that pregnant brides are a little slutty?"

"Aren't you always a little slutty?" Lorelai smacked her arm. "Kidding and no."

"And I don't really think Luke's ready to have a kid yet."

"He would be if it was yours." Lorelai looked at Sookie. "He loves you Lorelai." Sookie took one of Lorelai's hands and touched her face maternally. "He would do anything for you, including raise a kid. You saw how he was with Rory and she wasn't even his." Sookie gasped as she realized what she had said. "Sweets…I…I didn't mean…"

"Relax Sookie. It's ok."

"All I'm saying is that he'd be more than happy to raise your baby with you."

"Are you sure?" Sookie nodded.

"Now go tell him." She herded Lorelai out of the kitchen and then turned to her kitchen staff. "Those two are going to make it," she whispered to no one in particular.

"Luke!" Lorelai walked into the diner.

"Hey." Luke walked by and pecked her on her cheek. "Sit any where you like."

"No actually I need to talk to you when you get a chance."

"Not again," Luke groaned as he set the plates he was carrying on the table.

"It's not like I have another kid that I can figure out isn't mine." At least not yet, Lorelai thought to herself.

"Ok then, can this wait." Lorelai frowned a bit.

"Ok I guess." Dejectedly, she walked to the counter where Zach poured her a cup of coffee. She sipped as she watched Luke bestir around the diner. Her mind flickered to images of her sitting her with a baby, wrapped in a blanket. Luke would come over to the two of them when he got a break and kiss Lorelai before taking his child in his arms. His usual rough looking appearance would soften as his child reached out and grabbed a hold of his finger. He would smile and kiss his child then his wife before going back to work. And Lorelai would have it. The happy family that everyone had envisioned for her with Chris. Lorelai smiled, suddenly a baby didn't seem so bad.

"So what's up?" Luke asked Lorelai. The lunch crowd had left and it would be a while before the dinner crowd would come in. Luke was going over receipts.

"Do you think maybe you could sit down?"

"Lorelai if this is another proposal to me about watching the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, I still say no." Luke didn't even look up.

"You will regret that. It's a good movie. Not very manly granted, but good nonetheless." Lorelai shook her head, trying to get back on track. "But that's not what this is about. I've been moody for the past few days and I've been doing things out of character. And I've been throwing up the past few days in the mornings." Lorelai was really hoping that he would get it. Put the pieces together but he didn't look up at her. "And today I ate a green apple."

"Good for you. I've been telling you that apples keep you from getting cancer." Lorelai smacked her forehead against the counter. How could he be so dense? She pulled the drugstore bag off the stool next to her and slid it down the counter to him.

"What's this?"

"Open it." Luke set his receipts down and pulled the box from within the bag.

"No way!" Lorelai was pleased to see that he looked excited as he looked down at the pregnancy test box.

"Maybe."

"What do you mean maybe?"

"I wanted to take it with you."

"Well get in that bathroom." Lorelai stood up and Luke waved her on.

"Luke, I kind of need the test."

"Oh, right." Luke threw it to her.

"So I guess it's a good thing that you've put off buying the gown," Luke told her. The two of them were sitting at the counter. His arm was around Lorelai who held the pregnancy test in her hand. They were waiting for the two minutes to be up.

"So you're really excited about all this?"

"I couldn't be happier." Lorelai smiled up at him with tears in her eyes and she kissed him. "But if it's girl she's not dating until she's fifty." Laughing, Lorelai realized that he would make a great dad and she couldn't wait to have this baby with him. The timer pinged indicating that their wait was over. "So I guess we should start picking out names."

"No," Lorelai said quietly. Luke looked down at the test in her hands and saw that it was negative. "I guess I'm just not meant to have kids." Lorelai chucked the strip in a nearby bin and then stormed out of the diner.

"So will you actually go to the door willingly this time?" Tristin asked Rory as he drove.

"Maybe. We'll just have to wait and see about that." Rory turned to him and looked at his face. She took in every angle and wondered why she had never noticed just how good looking he really was.

"Take a picture Mary, it'll last longer." Embarassed that he had seen her looking, Rory turned to look out her window. Rory saw it coming first.

"Tristin look out!"


	12. Looking for Love in all the Right Places

Monitors beeped with the rhythm of her heart. The IV stood out, dark against her pale white skin. Her blue eyes were hid behind her closed eyes. Slumped in a chair beside her, Tristin's eyes were also closed. His hand lay loosely over hers. Nurses walked by and peeked in on the two. Though it was way past visiting hours they just couldn't seem to bring themselves to tell the young man to leave. The two had arrived at the hospital over four hours ago in an ambulance. The young man was bleeding from the head but he didn't seem to notice as he clung to the unconscious girl's hand. He hadn't let go of her hand until the doctor's had taken her into surgery. This was when the doctor finally had a chance to look at the man's head wound. They'd stitched him up neatly but all he had been worried about was the girl. He had resumed the hand holding as soon as she came out of surgery. The nurses all took pity on the young couple. The man had given them a credit card to pay for all of the woman's expenses. The man had not said his relationship to the woman so the staff assumed that they were newlyweds. What a way to spend their early marriage. Suddenly, she stirred. Sensing movement, Tristin's eyes opened and Rory's did too at the same time.

"Hey," Tristin whispered to her. "You had me worried."

"Wh..where?" Rory looked around, confused. She tried to sit up, but Tristin gently pushed her back down.

"It's ok. You're just a bit groggy from the meds."

"Meds? Tristin what's going on?"

"Well we were driving and then you looked out your window and yelled at me to look out and I glanced in your direction and I saw the…"

"Car," Rory finished as she remembered.

"I tried to swerve but he was going to fast, some idiot drunk I'm sure. He hit the side of the car and you hit your head on the dashboard. My car kind of spun out of control. It was totaled." Tears fell from Tristin's eyes.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

"About the car? No the important thing is that you're all right." Tristin squeezed her hand and Rory's heart monitor began to beep faster. Tristin looked up at it with a smile and Rory's face flushed with embarrassment. "So I've put it off until now, but I really think you should call your mother."

"I don't think so."

"She needs to know." Rory tried to move but the IV prevented her from moving very much.

"I don't think she can deal with this. She'll force me to come home before the word 'hospital' is even out of my mouth."

"Well then maybe it's best. Maybe this whole search was a bad idea." Rory looked at him as if he had just suggested that she grow another arm. "No I don't believe that," Tristin answered her unasked question. "But I don't think you can truly recuperate while all this stress is building on you from being rejected by potential moms."

"I'll tell my mother when I get home, deal?"

"I don't think…"

"Can we change the subject?" Tristin looked as if he was going to protest, but then he held up his hands in surrender.

"But what do we have to talk about?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that we've been in the car with each other for over three weeks, you're pretty but that can only last me so long."

"Ha ha." Rory tried to pretend like his words didn't mean anything, but deep inside she knew that that was false. It meant something to her that he thought she was pretty.

"I think we've used up our conversation cards."

"Have not," Rory protested.

"Oh please, you've been talking about Ayn Rand."

Forgetting about how elated she had been when he complimented her, Rory was appalled that Tristin didn't like Ayn Rand. "I happen to like Ayn Rand." Tristin chuckled a bit.

"Spoken like a true crazy woman in support of other crazy women."

Choosing to ignore his comment, Rory asked him to change the subject. "Well ok, what

exactly do you want to talk about?" Rory gave him a pointed look.

Tristin shrugged. "I'm not the one with unused conversation cards."

Rory thought for a bit. "Fine, you want exciting? Ask me something."

"Ask you what?"

"Anything."

"Anything?" Tristin raised an eyebrow and Rory gave him a confident smile.

"Anything."

"Ok. Let's see. Hmmm. Ok what do you want out of life?"

"Any question and you choose that?" To tell the truth, Rory was a bit impressed that he hadn't just asked something like how far she had gotten or something superficial like that. It seemed to her like he really truly wanted to get to know her.

"You said anything."

"Ok fine. I guess I want what every girl wants. Love," Rory clarified at Tristin's confused expression. "I would have thought that 'god's gift to women' would have known that."

"God's gift to women, I like it." Tristin smiled as Rory knew he would. Who wouldn't when someone stroked their ego like that? Rory suddenly regretted her decision to put a comment like that out there.

"But not just any love, I want that unrealistic fairy tale kind of love." Rory sighed and began to slip into her fantasy. She clasped her hands over her stomach. "The kind of love where everyone knows that two people are just meant to be together. But the two never see it until they have all of these amazingly romantic moments, just one after another. And every third party around them sees that they're falling in love but the two people are just oblivious. They get the occasional butterflies or whatever, but they just chalk it all up to infatuation. And then one day they just look into each other's eyes and they know. They know that they're meant to be together." She looked back at Tristin who was staring at her a bit dreamily. "What's with the look?"

"What look?" he asked as he averted his eyes to stare at the tape of her IV.

"The look on your face. The look that every girl wants a guy to have when he's thinking about her." Rory was a bit disheartened knowing that there was a girl in the world that could make him have that goofy face.

Tristin inhaled and then looked up at her, locking his eyes on hers. He took her hand. "Do you know?"

"Wh..what?" His sudden change of attitude made Rory curious. Could he really be talking about what Rory thought, nay hoped that he was talking about?

"Oh come on Rory do I have to spell it out for you?" Tristin pulled his hand back and seemed to get angry. "I drop everything to come on this trip with you. Two days, do you seriously think that's enough time to do anything? I leave my office in total chaos. Then when you chicken out at the first house, I carry you to the front door of that house. Any opportunity to be close to you. The slow dancing in the parking lot. Did you seriously think we were just dancing because you liked the song? And here I am, sitting in a hospital far after visiting hours. I held your hand until you woke up I was so worried about you. This look," he pointed to his face that didn't have the look on it anymore. "is for you." That's when Rory realized that he wasn't angry but frustrated. Though Rory never thought of herself as a spontaneous person she felt herself pulling away from her pillows and leaning into him. Her lips met his and Rory realized that she had been longing for this ever since the trip started. "You need to lay down," Tristin whispered to her as he pulled back. Rory was worried that she had done the wrong thing but then she realized that he was smiling. Following orders, she rested her head on the pillow. He rose from his chair a bit.

"Don't leave me," she begged him. Then she realized that he was only scooting his chair closer to his bed.

"I haven't yet." He took her hand in both of his and kissed her knuckles. Then he held onto her hand with one of his as the other stroked her hair.

"So you really don't like Ayn Rand?" Tristin shook his head with a laugh. "Maybe you could try again. _The Fountainhead_ just once."

"It would have to be just once because by the time I finished that book I'd be dead. It's far too long. No one can have important things to say for that long."

"Please." Rory stuck out her lower lip and began to draw inspiration from her mother. "For me?" She widened her eyes in her best Lorelai imitation.

"For you anything." Tristin kissed her on the forehead and Rory smiled. "Now get to sleep." Tristin pulled the blankets up over Rory as if she was a small child. Rory settled back and closed her eyes. She felt him move back in his chair, but she also happily noted that he didn't release her hand. She cracked one eye open a bit and saw him sitting there, staring at her.

"You're seriously going to sit there and watch me sleep all night?" He nodded. Suddenly, she had bad flash backs of the last time she had been in a car wreck and her mother's refusal to leave her side. Lorelai really was Rory's mother, genetics or not. Rory opened both her eyes fully. "But what about when you drive tomorrow, won't you be tired?"

"The car got totaled, remember?" For a moment Rory thought she saw a flicker of sadness pass through Tristin's eyes. Was the car really that important to him? Before she could analyze the look any further, it had disappeared. "I don't know how much driving I'll be doing tomorrow."

"Right, no car. So how are we going to get to the address then?" Rory sat up, prepared to start planning.

"Go to sleep."

"Not when you're sitting there watching over me like some creepy murderer."

"Fine." Tristin leaned back in the chair, slumped down, and closed his eyes. He opened his mouth and let out a big fake snore. Even though she knew he was just humoring her for the moment, Rory laid her head back down on the pillow. Sure enough, moments later she heard Tristin shift as he resumed a seated posture. Though he wasn't doing what Rory had asked him to, she was oddly comforted by it. He truly did care about her. Just like Lorelai cared about her and look at all the hurt that had brought Lorelai. Would the same happen to Tristin?


	13. Responsible Adults?

"I don't see why they made me take this thing," Rory complained as she beat her fist on the arm of the wheelchair.

"Hospital policy Mary. After all the surgery you had they couldn't just let you walk out of the hospital." Tristin smiled as he pushed Rory's wheelchair through the overly decorated lobby.

"But I spent two days there, they don't think that was recovery enough? They think that the extra two minutes of sitting in a wheelchair is really going to make a difference?"

"Just deal with it, there's our ride." Tristin steered the wheelchair out the front doors and towards a black car on the curb with a taxi sign on it.

"Where are we going?" Rory gave him a curious look as she was helped into the taxi by Tristin and the taxi driver.

"To the airport of course." Tristin gently nudged her over as he joined her in the taxi.

"The airport?" Tristin nodded. "So we're going home?" Rory was a bit disappointed as the taxi pulled out of the hospital parking lot. She'd come all this way and hadn't found what she was looking for. And now it was over, before it had really begun.

"Maybe," Tristin replied as he shrugged. Rory sighed and then looked out the window at the passing city.

Soon, the taxi began to slow down. All Rory could see outside the window was houses. Wondering if the taxi driver was lost, Rory turned to Tristin who just smiled. "Did I forget to mention that we had a stop to make first?" he asked her as he held up her napkin with the addresses on it. Smiling, Rory threw her arms around his neck.

"You're the best."

"How about we wait to celebrate until we've found out if this woman is truly your mom?" Rory pulled back and smiled.

"Let's go."

"We won't be long sir," Tristin told the cab driver before the two of them got out. Tristin was on the side of the car next to the house so Rory had to walk around to join him. She looked up at the house. There was nothing special about it. It was the typical stucco house in the middle of a suburb. And yet, something about it felt special to Rory. It could be the fact that she was about to meet her birth mother or it could be the fact that Tristin was standing so close to Rory, but suddenly she got goose bumps all up and down her arms.

"Is it weird that I'm getting this tingly feeling all over?" Rory asked Tristin as she rubbed her arm.

Tristin leaned down and whispered into her ear. "That's the way most girls feel when they stand next to me." Rory punched him playfully in the arm before she started walking to the house, Tristin beside her.

The front steps squeaked as the two walked up them. "So this is it?" Rory asked as she stared at the mahogany front door.

"You mean did I get the right address? Yes I'm not completely incompetent." Rory turned to him and smiled.

"Glad you cleared that up because I was wondering." Tristin chose to ignore her.

"Are you actually going to knock this time without my help?" Rory rolled her eyes at him, but also wished that he would reassure her as he had done last time. Soon Rory felt his breath in her ear. "I'm still here," Tristin whispered to her. He kissed her on her cheek and she smiled before she knocked.

"Hello?" a woman answered the door. Tristin immediately took Rory's hand and held on to it.

"Hi, are you Mrs. Anderson?" Rory asked, thankful that this time she had remembered the woman's name.

"I am, who are you?" The woman leaned against the door.

"M..my name's Rory Gilmore and this is my bo…" Rory's face turned red as she realized what she had almost said.

"Her boyfriend, Tristin Dugray," Tristin supplied. Rory smiled at him realizing that they had just passed the awkward, 'is boyfriend the proper term to use here?' phase. They had a sort of moment until Rory realized that the two of them were standing on some strange woman's porch.

"Um.. so we were wondering, and trust me I know how weird this sounds, but do you have a daughter that was born on November 15, 1984?" The woman's face changed to one of suspicion.

"I do."But that didn't mean anything. Lorelai also had a daughter born on November 15, 1984 and her birth daughter was dead.

"I..is she here?" Rory tried not to get her hopes up.

"You stay away from my Krista!" the woman roared right before she slammed the door, leaving two very confused twenty-one year olds on her front porch. Tears started to well up in Rory's eyes but she blinked them back.

"I guess it's safe to say that she's out," Tristin joked but then he looked at her. "Hey are you ok?" His tone softened.

"Y..yeah." Rory tried to sound strong, like she wasn't fighting back tears. "Hey, there's always the next woman right?"

"Right." Tristin put an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "Let's get to the airport."

"I still can't believe you didn't tell me," Rory complained for the millionth time. "I thought we were going home." Tristin smiled.

"It was more fun this way." The two of them had arrived in California over an hour ago. First they had gotten lunch and then they had gone shopping. They needed clothes because the only bag saved from the car was Rory's purse. "Hey man," Tristin greeted the man behind the counter at the motel. "One room, two doubles."

"No rooms with two doubles," the man responded quickly.

"Ok well then two rooms with one double."

"Sorry sir, only one room left. One double." Tristin looked at Rory with a questioning expression.

"Hey we're both responsible adults. One of us more than the other. I'll sleep on my side, you sleep on yours. We'll take it." The last thing she said to the man behind the counter.

But when they went into the room Rory realized just how small a double bed was. "Well this should be…fun."

"Oh come on Lorelai, you've been putting this off for weeks." Sookie grabbed Lorelai's hand and tried to drag her into the bridal dress shop. Lorelai pulled back, trying to get her arm. "Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, unless you want to walk down that aisle naked you best get in that store!"

"Well I would be a trend setter."

"Or something." Sookie gave Lorelai a pointed look and then Lorelai sighed.

"Fine, let's go." The bell pinged as the two walked in.

"So what exactly are you looking for?" Sookie began to walk around the shop, looking at

options.

Lorelai took a few steps in the door and began to touch the tulle of the dress nearby. "Well I think I would chew my right hand off if I could get one of those slinky numbers like the stars have it would make Luke drool right on the priest's foot. On the other hand, in this case my left, I guess I've always dreamed of having the traditional dress with the humungous skirt, train and all."

"So in other words, you have no idea." Sookie put the option she had out for Lorelai back on the rack.

"Basically." Lorelai turned to her best friend.

"And you won't know until Rory gets back?"

"Sounds about right." Sookie walked over to Lorelai and put her arm around her.

"So coffee?"

"Absolutely." The bell pinged as a very confused sales lady watched to two leave the shop. Lorelai took one last look into the shop of immeasurable amounts of tulle and once again wished her daughter had never left. She wondered what Rory was doing right now.

"So are you sure I'm not killing your arm?" Rory asked Tristin.

"Positive." The two of them lay on the double bed. Tristin's arm was around Rory and her head was on his chest. They had both taken showers and thought that they would get some sleep. They tried to stay on opposite sides of the bed. In fact they had gone to such painstaking efforts not to touch each other that it was almost comical. In the end they decided not to prolong the inevitable and had ended up just getting next to each other. But when Rory was in such close proximity to Tristin there was no way she was sleeping and she had a hunch that Tristin felt the same way about her.

"So can I ask you something?" Rory felt that since the two of them were now officially together, she could ask the question that had been on her mind.

"Sure."

"What was the significance of that car?" Rory felt Tristin's breathing halt. Soon it resumed it's slow pace.

"It was my mom's."

"Was?" Rory propped herself up on one arm as the other rested on Tristin's chest.

"She died, last year, cancer."

"Oh my god Tristin, I'm so sorry. And I'm so sorry about the car. If you hadn't come on this…"

"No it's cool. I knew that car couldn't last forever, I mean it was already ancient when she owned it. But in way it made me feel connected to her." Tristin gave a slight laugh. "I guess that was the reason I came on this trip with you. You know? Like since I couldn't have my mom back, maybe I could help you find yours." Rory smiled.

"I thought it was because you wanted to spend time with me," she teased him.

"Well that was just a bonus." Rory leaned down and kissed him.

"I'm glad you shared that with me." Tristin tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"There's no one I'd rather share it with." Tristin pulled her to him and they began to kiss. His tongue played with hers and soon Rory felt his hand creep up her shirt. For a moment she thought to pull back, but then she realized that there was no one she'd rather share this particular moment with. She pressed herself harder into him.


	14. Finding Yourself

Rory's eyes fluttered open. She realized that she was lying on Tristin's chest. With a sigh, she recalled the previous night's, for lack of a better word, event. She raised her eyes and saw that Tristin was awake.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Watching you sleep." Tristin squeezed her close and kissed the top of her head.

"That's the second time in three days that you've done that."

"Well what can I say, I get my kicks in weird ways."

"I can only express puzzlement that borders on alarm." Rory jumped up and pulled the sheet around her.

"Oh come on, I've seen you naked."

"Not in daylight you haven't." Tristin shook his head as Rory walked to the bathroom. "And don't even _think _of coming in here," Rory called through the closed door. She had something in her tone that made Tristin jump out of the bed and run into the bathroom with her. "What took you so long?" Rory giggled as she turned on the shower.

"Lorelai you're going to have to buy a dress eventually," Luke groaned as he stirred the potatoes.

"I know, but none of them felt right," Lorelai explained for the thousandth time as she thumbed through a magazine. "I want to get those butterflies in my stomach and feel that stomach juice bubbling up in the back of my throat."

"Sounds like you'd rather have the flu than a dress." Lorelai gave him a look.

"The point is, I'm not just going to buy any old dress, it has to be _the _dress. The one that I wish I could wear every day of my life even though it would be totally impractical if I ever went bike riding or roller-blading."

"Since when do you do either of those things? Never mind." Luke turned down the stove top and turned to her. "You need to get a dress. Our wedding date is coming quick and unless you find a dress quick, you'll be walking down the aisle naked."

"Why is everyone so opposed to that? And besides, do you think that if I don't find a dress I'll immediately think 'What the hell I have a whole closet full of clothes that may not be wedding dress fancy but they're at least church fancy but why not go naked?' Am I really the type of woman that would go naked in a church?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Luke asked as he raised his eyebrows. "Look, I want you to have the dress. And I mean _the_," Luke used air quotes. "dress. We'll postpone the wedding if we have to."

"You'd really do that for me? All because I couldn't decide." Luke nodded and gave her a kiss. "Well what if I, by some miracle, get pregnant. And then I'm in labor and I can't decide on the name. Will you postpone the birth?"

"I'll shove the little sucker back in if I have to."

"Let's hope it won't come to that." Luke turned back to the potatoes and Lorelai stood behind him, her head rested on his shoulder.

Things had changed between Rory and Tristin. They had become a lot more physical and not just in "that" way. Though it wasn't Rory's first time it felt like it. Her time with Dean had been special but after that they had to sneak around and they never had a true relationship. With Logan, she never felt "experienced" enough from him. She never felt like she belonged. But with Tristin it was different. He made her feel special and she loved the way that his hand just fit around hers. The way she fit next to him, their two bodies almost merging as one.

Now as Rory stepped from the cab, she was grateful for that. The two of them stood, side by side, leaning against the cab. She looked up at the house, realizing that this had to be it. Here in this very house was where she would meet her birth mother. Nervousness bubbled in Rory's stomach as she stepped forward. She was about halfway up the driveway when she realized that Tristin wasn't beside her. She turned back to see him still leaning against the cab door.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked him, trying to keep the panic from her voice. She didn't think she could do it alone.

"Don't you think you should do at least one on your own?" Rory knew she was being a baby, but that was the last thing she wanted.

"And break tradition?" Tristin walked up next to her and took her hand. "Actually, I was wondering if maybe, for old times sake you could…" but Rory didn't need to finish because Tristin had already picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.

"How's the ass now Gilmore?"

"Pretty nice, you been working on it?" The two laughed as Tristin set Rory down on the front porch. "So here goes nothing." Rory inhaled deeply and knocked once on the door. Almost immediately a young woman opened the door. This woman looked far too young to be who Rory was looking for and she held a baby in her arms. "Hi is Ms. Rodensky home?" The woman shook her head. "Well do you know when she'll be back?"

"She doesn't live here," the woman clarified. Of course, why hadn't Rory thought that perhaps the Ms. Rodensky had moved.

"Well do you know where she lives?"

"Are you a relative?" Was she? How could Rory convey to this woman that she was asking the same question?

"A…a friend," Rory lied.

"Well I'm surprised that you don't know, and I'm sorry that I have to be the one to tell you, but she passed a way a couple of years ago." Rory felt her throat close up.

"Do you know if she has...had any relatives?" Rory needed to know if there was someone out there from her family that she could ask about her father, or if Ms. Rodensky was even her mother.

But the woman shook her head. "I don't think so. I bought this house from her lawyer. But that reminds me." The woman held up a finger indicating to them to wait as she disappeared into the depths of her house. A house that could possibly, no had to, have once belonged to Rory's birth mother. Soon, the woman reappeared and shoved a book at Rory. "Most of her stuff was cleared out, but I found this about a year back under a floorboard in my bedroom. You should have it." Rory looked down at the book and touched the leather front. The word Diary was etched into it.

"Th…thanks," Rory choked out. The woman nodded sympathetically. Rory turned, realizing that she was wasting this woman's time.

"Um, excuse me maam," Tristin called to the woman. "Do you know where Ms. Rodensky was buried?"

"Most people that live around her go to that church on the corner of Elm. They have a cemetery."

"Thanks." Tristin turned to follow Rory.

"I wish I had better news for you," the woman yelled after them. So do I, Rory thought. She wished that her birth mother wasn't dead.

"Do you want to go to…" But Tristin didn't need to finish his sentence for Rory to know what he was asking.

"Please." She needed closure. The taxi had waited for them upon Tristin's request.

As Tristin told the driver about the church, Rory opened the diary. On the first page was written 'This diary belongs to Madison Rodensky.' Rory touched the lettering noting that she too had the same slanted cursive. Tristin looked back at her and put his hand gently on her shoulder. She leaned into him, her head fitting into the space between his shoulder and neck.

"It's her, I just know it," she whispered to it. He didn't need explanation as to how she knew it, nor did he tell her that she was just being crazy and that there was no way she could just know something like that. He put his arm around her in a reassuring way.

"I believe you," he whispered back.

Rory didn't know it, but the cemetery she had just arrived at was eerily familiar to the one that her mother had visited earlier that summer. It seemed that things had come full circle. The whole reason she was in this debacle was because of a death, it was only fitting that the debacle should resolve with a death. Rory scanned the headstones nearest to her, the death dates were pretty recent. Like past couple of years recent.

"She must be around here." Rory began to pace up and down the row of headstones nearest to the entrance as Tristin did so one row back.

"Rory," Tristin called to her and she knew. As she walked towards where Tristin was standing, her feet seemed to get heavier so that to reach him she practically had to drag them through the grass. The headstone was small and simple, nothing fancy. It appeared that the woman didn't have any family and any old headstone had been picked out for her. A generic headstone. But that was a lie, this woman did have family. Rory was it. And perhaps this woman had once had a husband, Rory's father. Quickly, Rory looked at the gravestones next to her mother's, but her father's didn't appear. Rory didn't know if that meant he was still alive or just buried some where else. It didn't matter this was time for Rory and her mother. Slowly, Rory knelt down. One knee made contact with the grass, then the other. Rory sat back on her feet and felt Tristin move away from her. He knew that this was something she needed to do alone. For a moment it alarmed Rory, why was he willing to meet all those potential mothers with Rory but wasn't willing to meet her dead mother. Then it hit Rory, memories. Right now he was probably going through tortured memories of his own mother's death. He had come on this trip to see a happy reunion between mother and daughter and instead he saw a reunion between Rory and a headstone. Suddenly the tears began to fall rapidly. She just sat there. She sat and cried that she never had a chance to know her birth mother. She cried because she knew that Tristin would never have a chance to know his mother further. She cried because she missed her mom, her real mom. The one that may not have given her life but had certainly made life interesting. And she cried because she would never know who her real father was. The only person who could tell her was dead. Tristin moved closer to her and put his arm around her, allowing her to lean into him. Her tears soaked his tee-shirt but she couldn't stop. Once she had opened the dam she just had to let the water flow. Finally the river was empty.

"I can't believe we came all this way so that I could look at a slab of stone," Rory whined as she wiped her eyes. Tristin laughed and she looked at him in disbelief.

"Don't you see, this trip was never about finding your birth mom, it was about finding yourself."

"That sounds like some line out of a movie."

"Well maybe, but it's true. In the time since we left your house I've seen you prove just how strong you are. And that you're a lot more independent from your mother than you seem to think you are." Tristin's tone changed to a less serious one. "Not to mention you found the perfect guy for you."

"Pretty full of yourself aren't you?"

"Well I have a right to be, I'm pretty amazing." Rory smiled as he kissed her.


	15. A Note From Me

Hey I'm having a bit of a writer's block on this story, not to mention my teachers are cracking the whip at school so I think that this story may be in hibernation for a bit. I'm always happy for feedback, it might help me come up with an idea of how to end this thing. Hope to hear from all my readers!

Peace.


	16. The Return

Rory pulled back. "It's just that I thought that after this long trip I would find her. And she would welcome me back and then I'd meet my biological father and then they would meet mom and they'd love her and then we'd all live together in a big house as one big family. My biological parents and my adoptive mother and step-father, the weirdest Brady Bunch that anyone had ever seen."

"Rory there is no way that would have happened." Tristin's tone was gentle.

"I know, but hey a girl can dream can't she?"

"But eventually she has to wake up." Rory nodded. "I'll give you some time." Tristin stroked Rory's hair, kissed her once, and then stood up to walk to the entrance of the cemetery.

"Hey," Rory whispered to the headstone. "I really wish I could have met you, but I guess this is all for the best. I guess that this trip was never about finding a new mother. I've got a mother and a damn good one at that. I think Tristin was right that this trip was about asserting my independence. And I guess was just looking for answers. It's like those shows that never tell you who the murderer is and everyone gets mad because they want a clean ending. All loose ends tied up in pretty bows. No one likes to have to interpret things for themselves." Rory sighed. "So I guess the only loose end left is who my biological father was or is if he's still alive. But you're the only one that knows that and well..." Rory brushed her thumb over the name on the headstone. The wind picked up, blowing Rory's hair around her. As she tucked a strand behind her ear she caught side of the diary sprawled on the ground next to the headstone. Its pages were flying wildly in the wind. Looking from the headstone, to the diary Rory smiled. Her hands and knees dug into the grass as she crawled to the diary. She opened the diary again, this time flipping to the first entry. It was dated a few months before Rory's birth.

Dear Diary,

How could this happen? It was a mistake, but it only happened once. He was nice about it afterwards, not like other guys. We agreed that it was a mistake but nothing could be done about it so we just promised each other to never talk about it again. But I'm afraid I have to talk about it again because well I'm pregnant.

Rory flipped a few pages in the diary, to an entry a couple of weeks later.

Dear Diary,

I was going to tell him today, I really was. But then I saw him standing there, talking to his friends. He looked so happy. I couldn't ruin it for him. Nor could I let my baby suffer through life with a father who despised it. So I've decided to give the baby up. It'll be better for everyone involved. The baby will have a better life and

The ink was smudged so that Rory couldn't make out the name. The end of the entry read "and 'smudge' never needs to know." Rory knew that if she could read it, she would finally know who her father was. Rory squinted at it and leaned close. With difficulty, she read the name. Finally she knew who her biological father was. She let out a laugh. Her laugh carried on the wind over to Tristin who turned his head to look at her in curiosity. The girl he had left almost in tears was now chuckling as she moved towards him.

"Let's go home," Rory told him when she reached him. Confused, Tristin put his arm around her as the two walked to the taxi that would take them to the airport. Rory smiled out the window at the headstone. This was where it ended for the two of them, Madison Rodensky would never cross Rory's mind again. Rory was going home. Never to question who her real mother was again.

"So I bought the flowers today," Lorelai said conversationally as Luke poured her another cup of coffee. Luke turned his back on the counter where Lorelai was seated as he cleaned the pot of coffee. He was closing up the diner and then the two of them would head back to their house. A rush of wind entered the diner as the door opened.

"So now all that's left are the dresses. Yours and the bridesmaids'. Unless of course you're keeping the ones Sookie picked out."

"Please say no," a voice said from the doorway. Lorelai gasped as she whirled around on her stool. The coffee pot fell back into its place as Luke too turned.

"Rory! Are you a mirage?" Lorelai said as she stood up.

"Nope. At least I don't think so," Rory said as she smiled. Suddenly, arms were wrapped around her in a crushing hug as Lorelai had run at her.

"I missed you kiddo!"

"I missed you too mom." The two stood for a moment, clutching one another.

"So where's Tristin?" Lorelai asked suspiciously as she released Rory and looked behind her. Rory sighed. She knew that this would come up but she still wasn't quite ready for it.

"He's gone back to work. I don't know when I'll see him again." Rory recalled their tearful goodbye, her tears not his, as he put her in a cab. He explained to her that he had to go back to work that they needed him. She knew that their parting was inevitable, his law firm was about an hour away from Stars Hollow and well her life was here, but she just wasn't ready for it that soon. He had kissed her with such passion by the taxi that Rory thought she might melt and then he was gone. For how long Rory had no idea. It could be forever. Maybe he had just thought it was a fling that would last no longer than their trip. But it didn't feel that way to Rory. Her mother seemed to sense something.

"Did something happen between the two of you?" Lorelai asked her daughter.

"Yeah. Something happened." I got my heart ripped out is what. "But let's not talk about that. I want to talk to you mom."

"Sounds serious." The two of them sat down at a nearby table. Luke hovered nearby unsure of what to do. Their wasn't exactly an etiquette book about what to do when your future step-daughter returned home from finding her biological parents and then said she wanted to talk to your fiancée. "Ok go."

"I wanted to apologize…" Lorelai put her hand over her daughter's.

"Rory you don't need to…"

"Mom, please let me say this. I want to apologize for leaving. I don't know why I did it. It took me going to my biological mother's grave to realize that I didn't really need to find her. I had a mother here. Whether you gave birth to me or not you're my mother. You've been there with me through everything and you never stopped caring." Tears filled Lorelai's eyes. "I love you mom."

"Ditto," Lorelai choked out as she wrapped her arms around Rory.

"Mom, I'd love to continue this hug but the table is kind of digging into my stomach." Lorelai smiled as she pulled back, wiping away tears.

"So you said that your birth mother is…she's dead?"

"Yeah, she died a couple of years ago." Lorelai nodded. She wasn't sure if she should say she was sorry when that wasn't the truth. She was happy. That meant that there would be no other mother competing with her for Rory.

"And did you find out who your father is?" Lorelai needed to know if eventually someone was going to be breaking down her door and stealing Rory from her. At this question Rory smiled. Lorelai didn't like that smile. It meant that Rory had met her father. That she had liked him. And that she could even now be planning on moving in with him.

"I did," was all that Rory said.

"Oh, so is he a nice guy?"

"He's very nice." Luke came and put a reassuring hand on Lorelai's shoulder. Lorelai's eyes began to tear up.

"Good, good." Lorelai didn't know what else to say. She decided to turn the conversation back to the mother, the one she knew couldn't take Rory away. "So your mother, was she from Hartford?"

"I don't know, her name was Madison Rodensky. Does it sound familiar?" Rory smiled.

"Ow!" Lorelai called out in pain. Luke's grip had tightened on her shoulder.

"M…Madison?" Luke stuttered.

"Yeah, you haven't seen her in what about twenty one years huh dad." Rory smiled at Luke.

"You mean…" Luke seemed to have lost the ability to form complete sentences. "I'm…but we only…once…party…both drunk…she never…I didn't know." Lorelai looked from her fiancée to her daughter.

"She's yours?" Lorelai gasped out.

"Yeah, Luke's my biological dad." Tears fell from Lorelai's eyes but this time they were tears of happiness. Luke didn't say a word. Silently, he moved from behind Lorelai's chair to stand beside Rory. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the chair immediately wrapping his arms around her. "I'm happy that my biological dad turned out to be you, I mean I couldn't have asked for a better one. But to tell you the truth, even if you hadn't been you'd still be my dad." Luke squeezed her tighter before releasing her. "I mean you were with me the first time I had chicken pox and you helped me make ridiculous fairy wings for my sixth birthday." Luke touched Rory's cheek. She leaned into the roughness of it. The two of them heard the scrape of a chair against the floor and soon Lorelai pressed herself into Rory her arms wrapped around her daughter's waist. Rory couldn't help but think that this was the perfect moment. The two people she loved most in the world here with her. One big happy family. But she looked out at the street and saw a cab pass the window and immediately her moment was spoiled. Reuniting with these two meant leaving someone else behind. Rory wasn't sure she was quite ready for that, but for now she happy just to be home. She turned back to Luke and Lorelai.

"So I think that in celebration of Rory's return we should rent the Homeward Bound movies."

"Yes!" Rory cheered. "I'll get the movies. Mom you pick up enough candy to put us all into comas." Lorelai saluted and exited. "Oh and dad, you're in charge of coffee." Luke threw an arm around Rory's neck and pulled her close. He kissed her on her head.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too. But that doesn't mean you have permission to skimp on the coffee." Rory smiled up at Luke and then walked out of the diner, in the direction of the movie store. Luke watched her for a bit before she disappeared around the corner.


	17. The Wedding

"I do," Lorelai said with a smile on her face.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," the priest said. Luke smiled and leaned in but before he kissed her, Lorelai whispered something to him.

"No tongue, we're in a church." She grinned as he pulled her to him and kissed her.

"May I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Lucas Danes." Luke winced as he said Lucas but no one seemed to notice. The whole church burst out in applause. Patty and Babette sat in the front pew, dabbing at their eyes. Taylor was in the seat behind them mumbling something about how the town shouldn't have permitted them to get married outside of Stars Hollow and also something about fire codes. Kirk sat in the corner, pouting because Luke and Lorelai had not hired him to play at their reception even though he had done a lovely rendition of Stairway to Heaven on the bagpipes for his audition. Lorelai and Luke walked down the aisle, holding hands. Rory and Sookie walked behind them.

"So I guess this means we aren't the Gilmore Girls anymore," Rory whispered as she followed her mother.

"Nope we're the Danes Girls now," Lorelai replied. They had reached the end of the aisle.

"Party time," Rory told her mother. Lorelai smiled and the crowd made their way to the reception hall.

"Man when Luke says he can't dance, he means he can't dance," Lorelai announced to the table as she sat down, massaging her feet where her pumps were cutting off the circulation. "My feet are going to look like they're victims of that crazy Jigsaw guy soon." Luke had arrived to hear this last part.

"Hey, I'm not that bad."

"Excuse me, Mr. I can't quite seem to find the beat? Not that bad," Lorelai repeated as she chuckled. "Let me get a few more glasses of champagne in me before we try dancing again." Lorelai grabbed her daughter's glass from her hand and drank it.

"Froo- froo champagne can't get you drunk. I told you we should have had beer," Luke grumbled.

"And I told you that beer isn't really a wedding type drink."

"Uh-oh this could get ugly, she just insulted beer in front of Luke," Sookie whispered to Lane and Rory.

"Come on dad, let's dance." Rory stood up and grabbed Luke's hand. The two made their way to the dance floor and they began to sway with the music. "You're not that bad," Rory told him. "Ow," she winced as he stepped on her foot. But soon he got it and they were back to swaying painlessly.

"So Rory, may I ask why you've been a bit mopey lately."

"I have not been mopey, and since when do you use the word mopey?"

"Since I got engaged to your mother. And I believe you have."

"It's nothing."

"It's that boy isn't it?"

"Tristin?"

"Tristin, dead man walking. Tomato tomahto."

Though this was a topic Rory did not want to discuss she smiled thinking about how concerned Luke was. "How did you know this was about him?"

"I'm your father, I notice things." Luke grinned down at her. "Have I told you how much I love saying that?" Rory shook her head and smiled.

"It's nice to hear." Rory wrapped her arms around Luke and the two of them continued to spin. Soon Rory was facing the entrance to the hall. A familiar figure was standing in the doorway. "Tristin," she whispered in shock.

"We don't have to talk about him if you don't want to," Luke assured her.

"No, he's here." Luke pulled back.

"Oh he's dead. No one hurts my daughter and gets away with it." Luke began to take off his suit jacket, but Rory grabbed his arm.

"As much as I enjoy the whole, springing into dad action I can handle this."

"Ok, but if he tries anything then give me the signal." Luke pulled his jacket back on.

"Deal, as soon as you hear me caw that means you need to come over and kick his ass." Luke smiled and kissed her on the forehead. Rory started to walk across the dance floor as Tristin did the same. They met somewhere in middle. As people danced around the two of them, they just stood looking at one another.

"So congratulations to your mom and dad," Tristin said.

"I'll tell them." Rory didn't know if she was happy to see him or not. It really depended on what he was here to tell her.

"So what have you been up to in the two months since I last saw you?"

"Helping my mom buy a dress, wedding stuff, starting school."

"Oh yeah, how's that going? Feels good to be a senior right?" Rory sighed, wishing he would just get things over with.

"Tristin, what did you come here for?"

"What do you mean? When you think wedding do you not think Tristin?" He chuckled a bit at his own joke.

"Tristin you said goodbye to me pretty much the moment we got back home. You shoved me in a cab and just watched me go. Then I get no contact from you for two months. Two months Tristin, that's a hell of a lot of time to get things running smoothly again at your firm. And then you show up here, to a wedding you weren't invited to. To a wedding that quite frankly I'm not sure I want you at." Rory's feelings began to bubble over. She missed him true, but she wasn't just going to let him off the hook. "So Tristin I'm going to ask you again, what the hell did you come here for?"

"I came here to tell you that I transferred my firm to about thirty minutes outside Stars Hollow, that's what took me two months, and I bought a house there. I wanted it to be a surprise but I couldn't trust myself not to blurt it out, so I just avoided talking to you all together. So do you forgive me?" Tristin said jokingly with a smile but Rory didn't respond. Immediately, Tristin realized that he had screwed up a lot more than he thought. His tone changed to a more serious one. "I understand if you can't forgive me." Rory still didn't say anything. "I'm going to go, sorry to ruin the wedding." As Tristin turned to go, Rory found her voice.

"Where?" Rory didn't really want to let herself believe what she thought he was saying.

"Excuse me?" Tristin asked as he turned back to her.

"Where did you buy the house?"

"Stars Hollow," Tristin responded with a grin.

"Y..you bought a house," Rory repeated. "In Stars Hollow." Rory's head could not quite wrap around this. "Why?" This announcement was not what Rory had been expecting. Tristin sighed.

Tristin shook his head, mumbling. "The same old oblivious Rory." He took her hand. "Rory I love you. And right now I've settled in Stars Hollow. Things are great. And I know in life there are no guarantees. Hell that show was called Dawson's Creek and he didn't even get the girl in the end." Rory laughed, realizing they had spent entirely too much time together. "But for now I'm settled and I want to get on with my life. And the way I see it I can't do it until things with you either progress or end." Rory inhaled deeply, knowing what was coming. Tristin was going to dump her right here at her parents' wedding. Luke made a move towards Tristin, prepared to punch him right in the face for hurting Rory but Lorelai put her hand on his arm.

"What are you doing? He's going to break Rory's heart," Luke hissed. Lorelai shook her head and they continued to watch.

Tristin began to fiddle with something in his pocket. "And because I can't seem to imagine my future without you in it," he pulled a box from his pocket as Rory gasped. Tristin got down on one knee. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, will you marry me?" Rory couldn't say anything as a lump was caught in her throat, so she just nodded. As he slipped the ring on her finger, Lorelai leaned her head onto Luke's shoulder. Tristin stepped forward and kissed Rory. People began to clap as the two pulled back. Rory laughed a bit embarrassed.

"How did you know?" Luke whispered in Lorelai's ear. Lorelai kissed him.

"I'm her mother, I raised her to be irresistible." She pecked him again on the cheek and then walked over to her daughter. "Trying to steal my thunder? I can't believe you would get engaged on a day that is supposed to be all about me," Lorelai said as she hugged Rory. Rory smiled and held out her hand so that Lorelai could see the ring. Luke smiled watching the two, this was his family now. He had a wife and a daughter. And soon he would have a son in law too. Tristin strode over to where Luke stood watching Lorelai and Rory.

"So should I have asked for your blessing first?" Luke didn't take his eyes off his family.

"I probably wouldn't have given it to you." Tristin sighed and turned so that he was standing next to Luke, facing his fiancée and future mother in law.

"Look, I know you may not like me…"

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"You're not good enough for my daughter. No one is." Tristin shook his head, knowing that Luke was going to be a problem. People were still crowding around Rory, looking at her ring.

"Hey dad, get your butt over here. Mom's starting to compare our rings." Rory waved her hand to Luke.

"Yeah, how come hers is so much shinier than mine?" whined Lorelai. Luke sighed.

He turned to Tristin and continued their previous conversation. "But I guess you come pretty damn close." Luke clapped a hand on Tristin's shoulder and then walked towards Lorelai. "Hers is newer. I assure that eventually your two rings will be equal in shininess." Tristin laughed, thinking about what a trip Lorelai was going to be at family reunions. He smiled remembering his own mother and wishing that she could be there for his wedding. But then he realized that he would have a mother there. As soon as he and Rory got married, Lorelai would be a mother to him. He looked up to the sky, thinking about his mother, before turning back to face the gaggle of people in front of him and walking over to his new family. As the band played softly, the town crowded around the odd family. Here were two newlyweds who already had a grown daughter. The daughter had been raised thinking that the mother was her birth mother and that the father was just someone interested in her mom. As it turned out, the man was her birth father and the woman was her adoptive mother. And then there was the daughter's fiancée whom she had gone to high school with only to lose contact. They reunited three years later and after a brief summer trip, they got engaged. It truly was a unique family; nothing was done in the typical way. But after all, the Gilmore Girls were anything but typical.


End file.
